


Neon Green, Just as Mean

by mylevelance



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Angst and Humor, Bar fights, Everyone is chaotic, F/F, F/M, M/M, Neon Noir aesthetic, Rivalry, Zuko's just trying to drink in peace, bending as weapons, pissing people off is their love language, the romantic tension of trying to kill each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:13:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 43,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27592549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mylevelance/pseuds/mylevelance
Summary: Sokka needs a bit of fun, something to make him forget what he's missing, even if it hurts.Zuko needs a bit of fun, something to make him remember why life's worth living, even if it hurts.Omashu is a city of thousands. Sokka could have brought his gang to any other bar. Zuko could have sat anywhere else in the room. But they find themselves face to face with trouble.And by the looks of it, it's gonna hurt.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 56
Kudos: 94





	1. Everything Happens in Threes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In a city as clean as Omashu, old fashioned grime is a rare find. Sokka and Zuko could both use a bit of old fashioned grime.

[ ](https://ibb.co/jz26qyH)

_Everything happens in threes._

They ran through the city streets like jackals after blood. Lights flashed off their bared teeth. Hate and numbness danced in their eyes. There was a price for every mistake, for every wrong move. They laughed in their faces and paid it. They had deep pockets. 

No one could refuse them. One more drink. One more dance. One more game. They threw plates at the wall until they cracked. They felt the shards under their skin in the bite of the wind between dark rooms. 

They could say they owned the night and mean it. Their claws cut deep and scarred for life. Creatures curled in dark alleys shrank back. Doors slammed open to avoid the blaze of their glare. 

The neon lights burned red. 

**********

They ran through the streets like a wolf pack. Their bonds were tight, the kind that stuck, not that they would ever test them. They didn’t hide from the sky under awnings. Light rained down and splashed on their new shoes. They jostled for space in the line, on the floor, at the bar. They had wide shoulders and weight to throw. 

They got by on smiles and shoves. They got by on eyes watching their own backs. They got by reaching out a hand to lift each other from the wet street. They came from the outskirts, convening on the grimy asphalt. They laughed in roars and cried in rivers. 

They could say they owned the night and lie. They owned the night, but so did everyone else. They didn’t need to own the night. They just needed to feel it. 

The neon lights glowed blue.

*********

They ran like hound dogs. They had blood in their smiles. They stepped harder in murky puddles because they liked the noise. They liked shattering the reflecting lights in the water. They had chasms in their chest. 

One had quick hands. One made light and cast it like a blanket. One lied when pushed against a wall. 

One had shaking hands. One fired first and let it wreck them later. One snarled easier than speaking. 

Astoria Hotel. They both read the sign above the door. 

They both pushed on the pull sicker. They both gritted their teeth against the cackles in their ears. They both pulled too hard, slamming the door against the wall. They both breathed in the haze, deciding to stay. They both pretended to have a choice. 

The neon lights illuminated them in flickering purple. 

*********

Sokka wanted to leave. The music was good, but too loud. The bar was busy, but unfamiliar. His drink tasted fine, but he wasn’t drinking to taste. 

“C’mon, you still moping?” Toph yelled in his ear. He didn’t notice her come up behind him. She laughed. 

“Fuck off Toph,” he grumbled. Toph did not fuck off. She sat down beside him at the bar. Toph played up feeling for the stool. The bartender shot Sokka a dirty look. 

“You went on like two dates with Yue, how are you still butthurt about it?”

“Toph, he’s morning the tail he never scored. Leave him to his grief martini,” Suki said, wedging between them. She waved down the bartender with her fan. The fluorescence along the ribs of the fan made it seem like a green firefly in the low bar lighting.

“It's the house special, I thought it was going to be look different,” Sokka said defensively. The umbrella in the glass mocked him.

“I think you should save your crying about being ghosted by that girl for another time. We’re out tonight!” Toph said, punching Sokka’s shoulder. Her pulse cuff brass knuckles made it hurt more than she probably realized, “Who am I supposed to watch Aang destroy in darts before that second shot hits him?”

“Suki can do that. Just let me be in my vibes,” Sokka whined. 

Suki’s face turned a bit concerned, but Toph shrugged, “Fine, but if YMCA comes on, I better hear you screaming the loudest.”

“Toph they’re not going to play YMCA.”

“But they could. This is Omashu, anything goes. And when they play it, your moping period is cancelled.”

“Deal,” said Suki on Sokka’s behalf, “Now help me carry these.”

Suki and Toph left with four clear liquid shots and the bartender’s number. Sokka felt worse. 

He downed his drink and ordered a tried and true rum and coke. Why didn’t Yue buzz him back? He thought they had a great time on their dates. She laughed at all his jokes and he asked her all kinds of questions. She was so pretty, all white blonde and soft edges. Was he not good enough for her? Did she see him for what he was, just a common country boy?

The stool beside him creaked.

“They’re not playing YMCA yet,” Sokka said irately. 

"Why the hell would they play YMCA?”

That wasn’t Toph. The person sitting beside him was a stranger. Their black hair fell in uneven chunks over their eyes. A scar painted their left eye socket and temple red. Sokka caught the outline of a blaster holster on their hip. When the neon light over the bar switched from yellow to red, the scar blended in with the rest of their skin. They had gold rings on their slender fingers. Their eyebrows, jaw, and chin were sharply defined even in the haze. Their lips were bitten raw. 

The hairs on the back of Sokka’s neck rose.

He couldn’t think of a person who looked less like Yue. This person wore black from their combat boots to their ear cuffs. Yue only wore light blue and white because it complimented her complexion. The stranger looked at him warily. Sokka took a big sip of his drink. 

“You would sleep with me, right?”

“What the fuck?” the stranger reeled back. Sokka put his hands up to explain. 

“The girl I'm into completely stopped talking to me, I'm just trynna get a handle on what's not to like.”

The bartender gave Sokka a worse look than the one earlier. The stranger flagged him down while he was near and ordered a whiskey. Sokka frowned, whiskey tasted like gasoline to him. 

When the stranger had his hand around a glass, Sokka nudged their shin with his foot. 

“So?”

The stranger took a sip and narrowed his eyes at Sokka. He liked the attention, even if it was critical. 

“Are you asking for me to fuck you? Pretty bold come-on.”

“No, no, I’m asking if you would want to, hypothetically.”

If Sokka wasn’t 23, if he hadn’t been in as many club fights as clubs in Omashu, the look the stranger gave him would have made him duck reflexively. Holy shit, Sokka felt completely naked sitting at the bar. He clamped down the urge to reach for his ion particle boomerang on his back to make sure it was still there. A person need protection from a look like that. 

“You’re hot, in a surfer bro kind of way. Seems like you have nice arms. Lot of charisma, but I’ve been drinking since six so that might not hold up in the morning. So yeah, I’d fuck you.”

“Yesss,” Sokka did a victory fist pump and clinked his glass against the stranger’s. 

“Wow,” they said sarcastically, “I’m flattered.”

“My ego's bruised, I just needed some confirmation that I still got it,” Sokka explained. He could be honest with a stranger about this stuff, he'd never see them again. That was the joy of talking to strangers. Sokka thought people should do it more often.

The stranger almost looked sympathetic for a second, “That's rough buddy. It won’t make you feel better, but I just got dumped by a guy I didn’t even know I was dating. I thought we were just hooking up. Ugh, this is gonna be such a long fucking year.”

“And a shitty new year to you too," Sokka sang, "So what’s a person like you doing in a place like this?” Sokka said in his cheesiest macho voice. The stranger’s mouth curled up in one corner and it felt better than any of Yue’s laughs. 

“I go out for what is supposed to be ‘fun’, but always ends in my sister getting in a catfight for her own ‘fun’,” Sokka snorted at the sarcastic description, “What? Does this place seem to clean for me?”

Sokka looked around. There were burn marks on the low wooden ceilings and dents in the walls. The pitch dark of the dance floor undoubtedly hid empty bottles rolling between stomping feet. Only the morphing neon lights made everything seem animated and artful. Just like Sokka’s charisma, it wouldn’t look so good in the light of day. 

If anything, this guy was too cool for a place like this. But the guy wasn't completely a stranger now, the veil of anonymity was starting to thin the longer they talked. So Sokka lied. 

“Nah, you fit right in, my man.”

“Am I your man now?”

Sokka was caught off guard for a second by the change in tone. The smirk on the stranger’s face returned. Oh, he was just playing. 

Sokka loved games.

“You could be, if you wanted to finish that drink and put your mouth where your money is.”

It was a bit much, the stranger’s eyebrows rose into his bangs. Sokka finished his own drink and set it down too hard on the bar top. This was way better than feeling miserable alone. People said feeling sorry for yourself was better with the right kind of company. Maybe this guy was the right kind of company. 

“Fine, I’ll get a room upstairs.”

He’d called the bluff. The stranger tilted his chin, daring Sokka to back down first.

Sokka was saved by the bell, or rather the opening bars of the cult classic YMCA. How the hell did Toph get them to play it? The song was more historical than Sokka’s model petrol-cars. 

“Sorry champ, I promised my friend a few minutes on the floor,” Sokka said, hopping off the stool, “Don’t go anywhere.”

He added finger guns just to watch the guy grimace and pushed into the crowd. 

He found the gang easily, Aang’s APPA unit hovered over the middle of the pit. Aang himself jumped about three feet in the air to ‘dance’. It made Katara laugh so Sokka didn’t mind, as long as he didn’t get hit in the face. Suki threw her elbows to ward off people getting in Toph's space. Sokka called it her chicken dance. The chorus hit and then they were all jumping together. 

After completing his commitment to yell at the top of his lungs with his friends, he shoved his way back out to the bar. He was coated in a layer of sweat and another drink would be just what he needed. The seat the scar guy had been in was empty. Huh, maybe Sokka had scared him off. Wouldn't be the first time he'd come on too strong. 

Suki came up behind him and dragged him back onto the dance floor before he spent too long thinking about it. 

Later, on the walk to the magtrain station, Sokka couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if the song hadn’t come on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this AU, YMCA is regarded in the same way we regard Beethoven's 5th: an undeniable work of art, still fucking weird to hear in a club.


	2. This Means War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko likes that no one notices him next to Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai. But the guy with ponytail really isn't letting him have this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey folks!
> 
> I'm this updating every week or twice a week. Lmk how you feel in the comments! Criticism is accepted in haiku format only.
> 
> Other than that, have some violence, as a treat.

“You should just sleep with him and get it over with.”

“Who?” asked Zuko. He hadn’t told her about the guy at the bar. Azula had got in a fight at the holo table with a massive biker guy and they’d all gotten kicked out for drawing weapons. Zuko didn’t even get to fire his thermal blasters, the fight was over with one crack of Azula’s bolt whip. He didn’t even get the guy’s name he had been talking to at the bar. It was too bad, he was more attractive than most of the guys ballsy enough to hit on Zuko.

Mai gave him an obvious look, “Jet. Your pager is blowing up with notifications. It’s not from your uncle.”

Zuko shoved the slim screen deeper in his pocket where the flashing light couldn’t be seen. “I should block him.”

“But you haven’t.”

They both knew why. 

Zuko pushed everyone away like it was his day job. It felt easier to prowl down the sidewalk with a chip on his shoulder than to walk alone because he had no one. He’d let Jet in when they were high at Ty Lee’s birthday party and he just couldn’t let it go just yet. It had felt good to be wanted by someone who knew who he was. It had felt less good when Jet admitted last week that he only started sleeping with Zuko to get back at Azula for some dumb insult. The big reveal had come around during Jet's awkward break-up speech. They had never actually gone out anywhere together. Zuko decided he'd stick to alcohol from that point on. 

Now Azula and Ty Lee walked ahead on the sidewalk. They always got out of the car a block away from the bar so Azula could watch the people in the lines outside watch her walk by. 

They never had to wait in lines. They weren’t exactly celebrities, but they were the kids of the landlord of Omashu. They walked in wherever they pleased. Azula spit in as many faces as she pleased. Ty Lee laughed. Mai watched. Zuko apologized when Azula wasn’t looking. If he pleased. 

Up ahead, Azula stopped under a neon purple sign. Zuko knew that look. It told him she felt rejected from this place and she didn’t take kindly to rejection. She didn’t take kindly to most things. To be fair, she had broken a full vodka bottle over a man’s head for telling her to wait her turn for the next round of holo. Zuko would insist that they go somewhere else if he had the energy. 

“We’re playing holo,” Azula announced as they went in, looking pointedly at Zuko. He shrugged, a distraction would make the night go faster, assuming they weren’t kicked out again. 

In the bar, the familiar feeling of blissful anonymity fell over Zuko. People were never looking at him when the girls were much more interesting, so he could fade right into Azula’s shadow. A guy at a booth made a grab for Ty Lee’s backside and she hissed in his face, knocking his drink into his lap. Mai held one of her laser blades at his neck until he raised his hands. Zuko didn’t even blink, carrying on to the holo tables. It was almost too easy not to care these days. 

Except. In his peripheral vision, he saw another group heading towards them. At the edge of the group was the guy from the other night, unmistakable with his dark hair pulled into a ponytail and wide smile. He noticed Zuko right away and jerked his chin in greeting. Azula set up the triangle, unaware. 

“Hey! Can we play you guys?” a bald kid in the group asked when they reached the table. 

“I’m going to get us drinks,” Mai muttered, turning away from the table. She had the right idea.

Azula rose to her full height, taller than the kid in her heeled boots. He looked kind of hopeful. A brown and white drone floated over his shoulder. Zuko didn’t know what unit it was, only that it was equipped with 'kindness darts'. They hurt like a son of a bitch, whoever had named them clearly had never had the misfortune of being a target. Zuko rubbed his shoulder at the memory of his last run in with a drone like that. 

“Ha, I don’t think so,” Azula said through a sneer.

Usually, that’s all it took. An acidic look to match her tone, and most people got the message. 

“Why not?” a girl next to the bald kid demanded. She was wearing a blue crop top and had a very complicated looping hairstyle. Her eyes were strikingly blue against her dark skin, just like-

“Couldn’t get enough, huh?” said the guy from the other night. He approached the holo table, stopping across from Zuko. 

Zuko gave him his best ‘as if’ eye roll, “Don’t give yourself too much credit.”

“Here I was, thinking you’d fuck me.”

The two girls with short hair next to him gave Zuko an appalled look, like he was responsible. One of them was taller and had almost as muscular shoulders as the guy. The other was slighter and wore a green shirt with the words 'Fuck your bad attitude' printed across the chest. Zuko couldn’t really tell if her eyes were focusing on anything, it could have been the lighting. 

“I think we need another round, Toph,” the taller one said. The shorter one nodded quickly and took the arm the taller one offered. 

The guy paid them no attention, still waiting for Zuko’s response. 

“I’m not in the mood,” Zuko said flatly. He had to speak loudly over the sound of the argument at the other end of the table. Azula was insisting that she didn't want to play with them, but Zuko figured she’d get fed up and want to crush them to prove her point.

“That’s just too bad, I was planning on making you forget your own name.”

“Well then it’s a good thing this isn’t happening because you don’t know it either.”

While they spoke, they shifted further down the table until they reached the end. Then there was nothing in between him. A pale hand reached over Zuko’s shoulder with his whiskey and retreated without a word. Mai could read a room like no one else. 

“Are you out to have a good time? Because it doesn't seem like it's working for you.”

“Technically I’m out to make sure my barely legal sister doesn’t get caught committing actual crimes.”

“What do you _want_ to do for fun?” the guy said, ignoring his comment. 

“I guess get shitfaced and not remember most of the night,” Zuko said dryly. 

The guy rubbed his hands together, “That’ll work. How much cash do you have?”

Zuko raised his good eyebrow at the look of trouble in those blue eyes, “More than I can spend on my own.”

The game they came up with went like this:

Every time Azula yelled about the other team cheating they drank. Every time the bald kid, Aang, sank a perfect shot, they drank. Every time the hair girl, Katara, corrected Aang’s form, they drank. Every time the tall girl, Suki, snorted at Aang's bad moves, they drank. Every time the short girl, Toph, heckled her own team, they drank. Every time Ty Lee said “nice shot” unironically after Azula made a terrible move, they drank. Last one standing got the remainder of Zuko’s cash. 

He didn’t remember agreeing to that term. But the other guy had declared stakes and just started drinking. Zuko would be damned if he was left behind. 

“Nice one Katara, throw them off their game by pretending to suck,” said Toph. 

They drank. 

“Shut it Toph. Aang, try with the lever between your first and ring finger.” 

They drank. 

After his glass of whiskey, Zuko switched to beer. He figured he might actually lose if he stuck to the hard stuff. 

“Last I knew, you couldn’t push the table to rearrange the set.”

“That was an accident!”

They drank. 

“Nice shot, Azula!”

They drank. Then they drank more. 

The other guy started to sway on his feet. To be fair, Zuko’s eyesight was getting a little blurry. 

“Hey, what _is_ your name?” slurred the guy. They leaned on the wall by the holo table. Zuko could see Mai sneaking glances at them, but his brain couldn’t process what to do with the information. 

“Zuko,” his voice didn’t slur when he was drunk, it was already soft and low. 

“Ha, like a zoo company! My name’s Sokka, like socks,” the guy, Sokka said. 

He stuck out his hand. Zuko shook it firmly. They both burst out laughing. The blue light from the holo table made Sokka look like he was larger than life. To Zuko, he felt like one of those people who got what they wanted out of life, tried new things to see if they’d sting or soothe, go out on a limb just to feel the breeze. 

Zuko didn’t feel much of anything anymore. 

“Well Sokka like socks, you gonna get us another round?”

“I’m not finished mine yet,” Sokka said, peering into his glass. Zuko took it from him, finished the rest of the beer, and pressed both of their glasses into his chest. 

“Now you are.”

Sokka laughed dopily, “You got me there.” He sidled around the pool table and vanished into the hazy dimness. 

“You gonna play next?” The question came from the taller girl, Suki. She was prettier than he’d thought up close, her big brown eyes crinkled at the edges, making her seem friendly. Zuko wasn’t fooled. She moved like a fighter, steps quick, head on a swivel. 

“I don’t play.” 

“Good. People who play get hurt,” there was subtext in there his brain couldn’t pin down at the moment. She smiled, though, and took out an old fashioned fluorescence fan to wave at her face. Zuko thought that a person watching them might think they were flirting. He wished he had a drink to hold. 

Somewhere to his right, Azula screamed in frustration and slammed her controller down on the table. 

“I don’t think it’s your business if he plays or not,” the monotone drawl came from his right side, Mai. She casually rested an arm on his shoulder. It was unusually possessive of her, but he trusted her to know what was going on better than he did. Besides, he was having trouble doing anymore than staying standing against the wall. 

“Even spectators can make good judges. You can always tell when a car’s gonna crash,” Suki said defiantly. Wait, weren’t they talking about holo?

“You’re not the one driving,” Mai said, sounding almost bored. Her black nails clenched into his shoulder in warning but Zuko didn’t flinch. “This isn’t your race.”

“Maybe, but I pick up the pieces, and your man seems like he’s a reckless driver,” Suki said, bracing a hand against the wall to better stare down Mai. The green light from Suki’s fan made Mai’s layers of chains and chokers look like snakeskin. Suki’s eyes flicked to her neck, then back to her face. 

Zuko needed to duck out of there before the nails started flying. 

Sokka turned up with the drinks just then, “I’m totally gonna win, your wallet’s mine, prettyboy.”

Zuko grinned fiercely, taking his glass and clumsily extricating himself from Mai’s arm, “You’re gonna have to work for it.”

Toph shouted, “Aang, even my blind ass could tell that wasn’t going in!”

They drank. 

In the end, Zuko kept his wallet. 

Aang scored the final shot, slinging the holo-ball into Azula’s home territory. Out of the corner of his eye, Zuko saw Mai slide next to Azula and subtly unsheathe a set of laser knives from her belt. Ty Lee blinked innocently while her titanium bat extended to its full length in the hand behind her back. Zuko was too drunk for this. He unclipped the safeties from his thermal blasters anyway.

“You SON OF A BITCH! We can’t CALL A TIE!” Azula screeched, throwing her controller at Aang’s face. Katara caught it before it hit him, her cheerful countenance replaced with something dangerous. Aang didn’t even lift a hand to block it, looking stunned at the turn of Azula's anger.

With surprising agility, Toph jumped onto the table. Something metal flashed on her wrist. 

“I guess I’ll say it if all of you are too shy, THIS MEANS WAR!”

She clenched her fist and in a split second, an exoskeleton surrounded her body. She disappeared behind dull grey metal joints and plates. Zuko could hear her laughing from inside the suit as she drove her mechanical fist through the holo table. 

It split in half with a thunderous boom. 

The music in the bar cut. 

Zuko held his breath. 

Chaos erupted in every corner of the room. 

Suki launched a green fluorescent projectile from her fan which Ty Lee knocked away with her bat. Azula cracked her bolt whip at the drone, but it dodged easily, Aang’s fingers flying over the controls at his wrist. Katara drew some kind of plasma gun. Mai snapped knife after knife at Suki while Ty Lee covered her back with the bat. 

A hand shoved Zuko down, he went easily, and a bottle thrown from the fray on the dance floor shattered against the wall over his head. Glass shards rained down. 

Sokka’s face was right next to his, hand still on his shoulder. He looked serious for an instant, then it was gone, a grin in its place, “You gonna stay down?”

Zuko snarled, drawing his blasters, and leaping to his feet with only a little wobble, “Not a chance.” 

He swung a lazy kick in Sokka’s direction and Sokka danced out of the way, swaying to a stop near the holo table. Zuko swivelled his blasters in his hands, trying to clear the blur in his vision. They were in bad shape to be doing this.

Sokka drew a strangely curved ion caster from his back holster. He smirked, the look of trouble back in his eyes. Zuko fired. 

His blasters were set to singe, not lethal. He had to use them more than he’d ever tell his uncle, more than he cared to admit. He didn’t actually want to leave a trail of bodies every time he left the house. Still, they effectively incapacitated any assailant, at least temporarily. 

Sokka deflected the fire ball towards the ceiling. It added to the burn collection already there. Zuko’s eyebrow twitched up. Maybe Sokka was just as drunk as him, but he was pretty quick on his feet. Would they be this evenly matched sober?

Sokka threw the ion caster. Zuko lunged out of the way. Blue beams shone out on the plane of its flight. They were more than light though, an overturned chair splintered as the light passed through. The caster turned in mid-air and landed back in Sokka’s hand. Zuko made a mental note to get the fuck out of the way of that thing.

“What is that?” Zuko yelled over the cacophony. He and Sokka circled each other in the space beside the holo table. Zuko’s heart was pounding in his chest and his head spun. His hands were sweaty on the grips of his blasters. He was certainly feeling more than nothing right now. 

Sokka tossed the caster again. Zuko dodged again. The beam cut through the edge of his sleeve, hot enough to sting but not to blister. It was close, though. 

“It’s an ion particle boomerang. It’s fucking sick, right?”

Zuko fired from both of his blasters. One shot caught Toph in the foot. She spun around in her suit, eyes landing on Mai. She ripped the table leg off from beneath her, collapsing the whole holo table, and threw the table leg at Mai. Mai somersaulted out of the way at the last minute and the table leg embedded in the wall with a crunch.

“Yeah, I haven’t seen one like that before,” said Zuko, ducking another slash from Sokka.

Now Mai’s attention was on Toph. Suki deflected one of Mai’s knives away from Toph with her fan. Mai was already whipping another one through the air. The red hot edge made a scratch in the metal and fell away harmlessly. Zuko was impressed, a suit like that was expensive, or at least very hard to steal. Even his family didn’t have one. 

Sokka blocked another round of blasts from Zuko with his boomerang. One deflected awkwardly into his shoulder and he hissed in pain. “God, those don’t tickle.”

Zuko spun them in his hands again, “I put them on easy mode, do you want to see them on hard?”

Unexpectedly, Sokka stepped into his space, too close for Zuko to get his blaster in between them. “Maybe. Would you fix me up after?”

“No,” said Zuko. Sokka was a couple inches taller than him, but that didn’t phase him. Zuko was pretty sure he could take him without weapons. Sokka was big, but Zuko would always be the scrappiest kid in the room.

If it came down to it, he’d jam the butt of his blaster into Sokka’s temple, take the hit of the ion boomerang on his forearm, then knee him in the gut and finish him while he was down... then probably throw up from moving that much with that many drinks in his stomach. But he found he didn’t want to use cheap shots. He wanted to brawl, but only to first blood. 

Nose to nose with Sokka, the crack of Azula’s bolt whip and the low thud of Katara’s plasma gun felt distant in Zuko’s ears. He could let the whole goddamn universe combust if he could stay right here, snarling at Sokka’s grin. Just behind Sokka’s shoulder, Zuko saw Ty Lee swing too wide, missing Toph’s head. He acted on instinct, tackling Sokka to the ground. Sokka went down, alcohol probably making his knees collapse. They landed hard, Sokka’s head thudded on the floor. Zuko heard the bat whistle through the air above them. 

“Ow, fuck,” Sokka moaned. 

“You’re fine,” Zuko said. 

They were nose to nose again. But this time Zuko felt Sokka’s chest rise and fall in gasps below him. Neither of them were smiling now. The fight raged on around them. 

Then the unmistakable flood lights of Pol-Bots turned the whole bar stark white. 

“Shit! Azula!” Zuko scrambled to his feet, not bothering to help Sokka. He spotted Azula locked in some kind of four way stand off with Katara, Aang, and his drone. “Azula! Let’s go!”

He vaulted over the remains of the table and grabbed her wrist. She jerked it out of his hand, but quickly coiled her bolt whip back into her belt loop. Katara and Aang peered curiously at the Pol-Bots pouring through the door. The tiny dart guns on the drone tucked back into its body with a click.

“What are they doing?” asked Aang. Patrons of the bar yelled and jostled, trying to get away from the disturbingly humanoid Pol-Bots.

Mai and Ty Lee materialized from the wreckage, weapons already stowed, looking for another exit. 

“They’re arresting anyone carrying unlicensed weapons,” Suki explained, stuffing her fan down her shirt. 

“But that’s all of us,” Katara said grimly, disengaging her plasma gun, "What are we gonna do? Dad'll be pissed if we get arrested again." 

“I see the kitchen door!” exclaimed Ty Lee. She pointed to the door at the far side of the bar. The Pol-Bots hadn’t got there yet. 

“Let’s go,” said Azula. She forged into the scattering crowd. Mai and Ty Lee flanked her sides, they'd keep her away from the Pol-Bots. Zuko turned to see if Sokka was still down, but Katara had already gone to give him a hand. Zuko shrugged apologetically and rushed to catch up to Azula. 

The nine and a half of them stumbled out into the cramped alley behind the hotel. The sky was indigo in the sliver between buildings, clouds reflecting the orange glow of Omashu. The light from the street at the end of the alley glistened in long stripes over the alley pavement. Zuko suddenly felt exhausted. He had a shallow cut on his arm and a bruise forming on his knee from where he caught his fall. 

Before he could investigate his surface injuries any further, a heavy arm slung around his shoulder. 

“Dude, you made me drink this much, you have to carry me,” Sokka said into his ear. His breath was warm against Zuko’s cheek. Zuko grimaced, but slid an arm under Sokka’s shoulder blades anyway. 

“No one made you drink this much. That was a DIY project,” Zuko said dryly. They both tripped on the edge of the sidewalk at the end of the alley. Zuko refocused from Sokka’s face to his own feet. It was a shame, it was a gorgeous face. 

Toph followed Mai and Suki’s interactions with an almost scientific curiosity up ahead as they clattered down the sidewalk. Suki had a hand on Toph’s arm, but her eyes were on Mai. Zuko wondered what they were talking about. Katara, Ty Lee, and Aang walked on the narrow ridge of the curb behind them, arms out to balance. Azula walked alone. 

“Where are we going?” Zuko watched the concrete beneath his feet carefully. If he fell, they’d both go down. He'd had enough going down for one night. 

“Station,” Sokka said obviously, “home.”

“My home isn’t that way.”

“What, are you on the Expo line instead?”

Zuko felt Sokka’s ribcage move under his fingertips as he spoke. The other hand braced Sokka’s arm around his neck. He could let go and walk lighter on his own, but Sokka was so warm against his side. Zuko didn’t want to be cold again. 

“We’re uptown.” Zuko would be lying if he said he didn’t get a little rush of satisfaction at the way Sokka’s eyes widened and mouth parted. 

“Oh shit. But you all look so…”

“Downtown?”

“I was going to say grungy, but yeah, sure, downtown,” Sokka said sarcastically. 

“Come on dipshits! Train leaves in two minutes” Toph shouted. She stood at the station entrance. It was always eerie to see places so busy in the daylight stand so completely empty. It was peaceful though, only the wind and the buzz of the halogens. 

“You coming? There's a line that goes uptown too,” Sokka said. His words were clearer than earlier. Zuko looked to Azula. She stood at the entrance of the station, looking up at the lit up sign with disgust. Mai’s face beside her was cast in blue by her pager, Ty Lee peering over her shoulder. 

“I don’t think so.”

“Come on Sokka!” Katara grabbed Sokka’s other arm and dragged him off Zuko. Sokka got in a wink before he had to watch his feet. Katara pulled him into a run. Zuko didn’t think he could be forced to run in this state, but he was beginning to see Sokka was a different kind of crazy altogether.

The group gravitated together like they’d done it a thousand times. Aang, running at the front, Katara and Sokka behind, hair streaming behind them like dark flags, and Suki and Toph hand in hand, keeping even pace. The drone tracked them all. Zuko still heard their pounding footsteps on the tiles after they turned the corner to the stairs. 

The sound of an engine masked the echoes. Zuko turned to find Azula's car pulling up beside the station. Her newest car was a Basilisk, capable of exceeding three hundred kilometres per hour with nitro hover engines. She hadn't figured out how to override the autopilot yet, though, so they had to go the speed limit. Zuko was very glad for that. 

“C’mon Zuzu,” Azula said, tossing her hair as she opened the passenger side door, “Let’s go home.”

Zuko ducked in last, closing the door hard behind him. The car started moving. Zuko closed his eyes against the city lights.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I make Toph the most powerful bender? Yes.  
> Will I apologize for it? No.
> 
> If anyone's having a hard time keeping track of who does what, here is the rundown.
> 
> Zuko: thermal blasters (essentially smaller fire ball guns)  
> Sokka: ion particle boomerang (fires ion beams as it flies, very difficult to master)  
> Mai: laser blades (throwing knives with plasma lasers along the edges)  
> Katara: cold plasma gun (like a shot gun but with a freezing goo that solidifies as it impacts)  
> Aang: APPA unit (drone with darts, thrusters to lift Aang into the air, and tracking ability)  
> Suki: fluorescence fan (puncture-proof material with laser projectiles from the ribs)  
> Ty Lee: titanium bat (a bat, that is titanium)  
> Azula: bolt whips (electric whips that coil into her belt, very difficult to master)  
> Toph: exoskeleton (indestructible suit of armour which grants her vision, mechanical strength, and blasters from the forearms, essentially accessibility iron man)


	3. I Don't Dance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Astoria has a busy night, not everyone likes busy nights.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not saying Chad and Ryan from High School Musical 2 are the prototype, but I'm also not not saying that.

“She was really good at holo, do you think she’s gonna be there again?”

“Aang, she tried to strangle you with an electric rope.”

“Everyone makes mistakes.”

“Not everyone throws their drink at the wall when they lose.”

“She’s got a point, Aang.”

They were waiting in line for Astoria. They were late and it was already busy. Sokka thought about suggesting the club down the street with the shorter line. But then, maybe Zuko would be here to say something biting, or just bite him. Sokka would wait in line for it either way. 

“Do you think they have fries here? I want fries,” Toph said, bouncing on her feet. 

“All bars in Omashu technically have to serve food,” said Katara, “Maybe you could get some peanuts.”

Suki snorted, “Peanuts, for our peanut!”

Toph elbowed her in the gut, “I’m gonna give you anaphylaxis.”

“I don’t think you can give someone anaphylaxis,” clarified Katara.

“Thanks Sugar Queen,” Toph said sarcastically. They moved up a few steps in line. 

The chatter from the people behind them died off suddenly. Sokka turned to see the problem. 

The problem strutted past the line with her posse in tow. Azula wore the same thigh-high boots and leather shorts from the other night. Ty Lee had her hair up on her head in swinging braids. Sokka wondered where she hid that bat she'd swung around in her hot pink outfit. Mai and Zuko followed, heads bowed together. Zuko wore a slightly translucent black shirt down to his wrists. Mai had more chains wrapped around her neck tonight, if that were possible. 

“Hey! Why do they get to skip?” Aang complained. 

“Maybe they have a deal with the bouncer,” Katara suggested.

“Why don’t you cut a deal with the bouncer so I can get some goddamn food?” said Toph.

“I don’t know how to cut a deal,” Katara replied seriously, “And besides we’re almost at the front.”

Sokka waved his hands over his head and jumped, “Hey! Zuko! Over here!”

Zuko stopped in his tracks, just a little beyond their spot in line. He and Mai scanned the line for the source of the noise. Sokka kept jumping and waving, smiling wide. Suki and Aang joined in, calling his name excitedly. 

Eventually Zuko spotted them. He shook his head, but came over anyway. Mai carried on without him. 

“What’s up man!”

“Why do you guys get to skip?”

“Do you have chips or something?”

“Do you know the bouncer?”

Zuko looked just about ready to bolt from the barrage. Sokka shoved through to the outside of the line. The rest of his friends backed off, probably figuring Sokka had the best chance of getting some information.

“No but seriously, how do you guys have seasons passes to the dive bar?”

He thought he saw Zuko’s lips twitch up on one side, but it was hard to tell under the shadows of the streetlights. 

“We have an in with the owner.”

“Well shit! Can your ‘in’ fit five and a half more?”

Zuko crossed his arms, “Mai has a cracked rib and Ty Lee’s got lacerated hands from last night.”

“So? Katara and Aang are covered in jellyfish stings from your sister. I’ve got like a second degree burn,” Sokka pulled down the collar of his shirt to show the mark from Zuko’s blaster, “It’s all in good sport.”

Zuko’s mouth twisted, “In good sport, huh?”

“Yeah! Look, I’ll even let you hold my boomerang if you get us in.”

Zuko chuckled and a shiver ran down Sokka’s spine despite himself, “Tempting, but I’ll have to pass.”

“Can you at least get us some nachos or something?”

“See you in there, Sokka.”

“Peanuts?!”

“Bye Sokka.”

Zuko continued down the line. Sokka watched him until he saw the door swing shut. 

“Nice going seńior suave,” Toph said helpfully. 

When they finally made it in, Astoria was packed. Bodies writhed on the dance floor in multicolour masses. The holo table section had been cleared out for more floor space. Most of the broken glass had been removed, it would have been turned to dust under trampling boots anyway. The table leg still stuck out of the wall. 

Sokka could taste the energy in the air. Something smokey sweet. He wondered where Zuko was hiding. He could ask Aang to program APPA to find him, but Sokka felt weirdly protective. Not necessarily of Zuko, clearly he was fine on his own, but protective of the possibilities Zuko presented. There was a lot a person could do with someone who fought like that and looked like that and talked even better. 

“Drinks?” Suki yelled above the noise. He nodded and they all waded their way to the bar. Aang was the loudest so he and Katara started the long process of getting the bartender’s attention on such a busy night. Suki, Toph, and Sokka stood just behind them, ready to grab and go. APPA floated up in the rafters. 

“Do you think there’ll be another Pol-Bot raid?” Suki asked, “They freak me out.”

“They’re designed to,” said Sokka, “creepy motherfuckers are way more intimidating than happy-face bots.”

“Ah, the small pleasures of blindness,” sighed Toph, “You know in my mind I’m taller than all of you.”

“Sure, remember that the next time I’m saving your ass,” grumbled Suki. 

“Hey now,” interjected Sokka, “We all know the only ass worth saving is mine.”

Suki snorted, Toph punched him in the shoulder with her pulse cuff hand.

“Your ass is of no value to the republic,” declared Toph. 

“Excuse me, you are a bad judge, you can’t behold its glory.”

“Can we please stop talking about my brother’s ass,” said Katara, turning with a tray of drinks. They were dark and fizzy. Sokka claimed the one in the middle right away. 

“Should we talk about my washboard abs instead? There’s plenty to discuss.”

Katara rolled her eyes and handed out drinks to everyone else. “The day you find someone who wants to hear it is the day I find inner peace.”

“Until then, let’s dance!” Suki said. She grabbed Toph who grabbed Katara who grabbed Aang who grabbed Sokka. And like that, they made their way to the middle of the dance floor. 

The bass rattled Sokka’s bones, the beat pounded up through the floor. This is what they came for. They jumped and leaned. They let the alcohol turn everything blurry at the edges. The lights turned their reaching arms green and blue and red and yellow. Strangers bumped against them in the mix.

Sokka wanted to find one stranger in particular. In the dark sea of bodies, it was hard to tell faces apart. He thought he saw a pair of braids swinging over a hot pink shoulder, but she was gone in an instant. 

He felt a pinch at his side and whirled around. 

“Did I get Sokka? It felt like a Sokka love handle,” Toph yelled in his vague direction. Sokka wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

“They are my support love handles,” he insisted. 

“Sure, sure,” Toph said sarcastically, “I want a breather, let’s go lurk in a dark corner.”

“Okay, here we go,” Sokka waited for her to grab onto his arm before shoving back through the crowd. 

When they got to the aforementioned dark corner for resting, they found it was already occupied. 

“The air feels demonic here,” said Toph loudly, “Is that just me.”

Zuko and Mai stared at her. The music was quieter and the air was less stifling away from the floor. 

“It’s not just you,” said Sokka. Zuko held up his middle finger and Sokka grinned, giving a fist bump to the back of Zuko’s hand. Zuko looked at him like he had a few circuits fried. 

“We were here first,” Zuko said. 

Sokka crossed his arms, mimicking Zuko from earlier, “You don’t own the corner.”

Zuko laughed dryly, “You’d be surprised.”

“Is that a pulse cuff?” Mai asked. She didn’t sound exactly enthusiastic, but Sokka was getting the feeling she wasn’t all that bubbly. 

Toph smiled widely and showed off the device over her knuckles and wrist, “Yeah, I had it made custom. It can punch right through the side of a skycruiser, I tried it.”

She moved away from Sokka to show Mai the different features. Sokko turned his focus to Zuko who was leaning against the wall, looking only a little less bored than he had a minute ago. Sokka decided to take that personally.

“Why do you come to a bar like this on a Saturday if you’re not going to dance?”

Zuko gave him an incredulous look, “I don’t dance.”

“What?!” Sokka said, moving closer to make sure he heard that right, “Why the hell not?”

“I don’t like it. Azula and Ty Lee sometimes dance when clubs are packed like this, Mai and I just hang out until they’re done.”

“What’s not to like? You just,” he shimmied his shoulders and wiggled his head, “It’s like the easiest thing in the world.”

“Maybe for people who want to look like dumbasses.”

“And you can’t look like a dumbass because…?”

“I don’t dance,” Zuko said, tone turning serious, “Just leave it.”

Sokka got in his face, “No.”

Zuko narrowed his eyes, “What did you say?”

“I said no, I’m not going to leave it. You look bored as shit and that is offensive to my culture.”

“And what culture is that? Blockhead society?”

“See, studies say people get grumpy without regular exercise.”

“I’m not grumpy.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Zuko hesitated, “...yes.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“It’s none of your fucking business.”

“I know what we can do to solve this,” Sokka said confidently, ignoring Zuko’s darkening expression. They were nose to nose again. He was a bit taller than Zuko, but he didn’t notice the difference when Zuko was glaring back at him like that. His eyes were lighter than he thought before, but it was too dark in this corner of the bar to tell exactly what colour they might be. His ear cuff was gone tonight, but the scar was definitely permanent.

“What?”

“Let’s dance.”

Sokka jabbed him in the gut. Zuko made a choking noise, but recovered quickly. Something new burned in his glare. Trouble. 

The punch came faster than Sokka thought it would. He dodged at the last second and returned another which Zuko blocked with his arm. 

And now they were really in it. 

Zuko aimed a kick at Sokka’s knees which he leapt over. He tried to kick back, but Zuko caught his foot, twisting him away. Sokka sumbled a few steps to regain his balance. Zuko advanced, graceful, dangerous. Sokka bared his teeth in a manic grin and Zuko returned the gesture. Sokka dodged right to avoid a blow and jammed his elbow towards Zuko’s ribs. He heard Toph holler encouragingly off to the side. 

Zuko swept his foot low and Sokka jumped again, landing right up against Zuko’s side. He threw an arm to catch Zuko in a headlock, but Zuko leaned away at the last minute. 

“See?” Sokka said breathlessly, taking Zuko’s knee strike to his hip instead of to his groin, “Dancing’s not so bad.”

“We’re not dancing,” snarled Zuko. He dodged Sokka’s uppercut and spun into a kick aimed at Sokka’s chest. It landed and Sokka stumbled back from the force. The guy had some muscle under those loose jeans.

Sokka advanced again, trying to take out Zuko’s ankles, but only catching air. “How’s this any different?”

“I’m trying to hit you,” Zuko said obviously, sending two rapid hits towards Sokka’s head. Sokka barely dodged them, surprised at how not out of breath Zuko was.

Sokka paused, standing straight, “Are you?”

Zuko’s eyes went wide for a fraction of a second. Then the corner of his mouth lifted and his eyebrows turned down. 

He lunged forward faster than Sokka could track. Suddenly, Sokka was pinned against the wall with Zuko’s forearm against his neck and his arm twisted behind his back. Mai and Toph were nowhere to be seen. 

“You’re right. If I were trying to hit you, you’d be on the ground already,” Zuko said. In the sideways yellow light from the bar, Zuko’s eyes looked gold. Sokka grinned, unbothered by his position. 

“Then you know what we were doing if you weren’t trying to hit me, right?”

“Sparring in a dive bar?”

“Danci-”

“Ugh!” Zuko groaned and crashed his mouth onto Sokka’s. 

It was just that; a crash. There was no gentle brush, no soft hand on his cheek. It was teeth and pressure and hips digging into his own. Sokka’s arm was still pinned behind his back, but he wrapped his hand around Zuko’s there and used the other to pull him closer. Zuko’s mouth was hot against his tongue. He felt nails dig into the hand behind his back.

Zuko shoved back, roughly swiping the back of his wrist against his mouth. He was breathing heavy now, eyes flashing in the haze. Sokka rolled his shoulder, it was stiff, but it still worked alright. 

“Did you really just kiss me to shut me up?” Sokka said, sounding more outraged than he was. He was pretty sure kissing Yue wouldn’t have felt like that, if she’d ever let him close enough to do it right. Kissing Yue would have felt like a soft embrace. Kissing Zuko felt like tripping off a skyscraper.

Zuko shrugged, “You were being annoying.”

“Oh the things you say just make my heart flutter.”

“I aim to please.”

“So?”

“So what?”

“You gonna do it again?”

The screech of metal on metal pierced the air. Sokka took a minute to figure out where the noise was coming from, no one on the floor seemed bothered. It came from the propped open door of the kitchen a few feet away from where they stood. No one else was near enough to hear it, or sober enough to care. Zuko and Sokka exchanged a look, a challenge. Sokka drew his boomerang. Zuko unclipped the safeties on his blasters. They approached the dark doorway.

“There’s nothing here,” Sokka said when his eyes adjusted. The kitchen was barely a storage closet. There was a grimy stove, a humming fridge, and a rusted sink. 

“No,” Zuko said, hands resting on the grips of his blasters. 

Sokka turned to him, winking cheesily, “But it’d be a great spot to-”

Another crash rattled through the room, this time more like a collision than a screech. It came from the door to the back alley. 

Sokka pressed his ear against the door, waggling his eyebrows at Zuko, “You scared?”

“I’m not fucking scared,” Zuko said fiercely, pausing in the doorway.

“Let’s check it out,” Sokka said, powering up his ion boomerang. The blue glow filled the room. “If you don’t come with me and I get myself killed, my sister is gonna disintegrate your pretty face.”

Zuko sighed heavily and drew his blasters, “That’s one of the weakest threats I’ve ever got. Definitely in the bottom three.”

Sokka opened the door.

They crept into the alleyway together. Or at least, they tried to creep, but the kitchen door swung too wide, slamming hard against the cement block wall of the hotel. Sokka winced. Everyone in the alley froze.

Four hulking figures blocked the entrance of the alley. Sokka couldn’t tell any kind of gender under the shaved heads and heavily tattooed faces. They carried plasma guns and black laser machetes, the latter Sokka had asked for every birthday since he was ten. They just looked so cool. Then Sokka noticed four more people. They were really more like people shaped lumps on the ground. One was face down in a puddle. One was slumped in the dumpster. There were slim burns all over their skin. Sokka would have laughed if he wasn’t so freaked out.

In the middle of it all stood Azula, hand on her hip, bolt whip crackling. 

“Zuzu, nice of you to turn up,” she said casually, as if she wasn’t in the middle of some altercation. Her hair was a bit frizzy and a bit of blood dripped from a cut on her leg, but other than that she looked fine. 

Zuko, on the other hand, looked like he had aged thirty years, “Azula, what’s going on?”

She tossed her hair and threw her hand out towards the people standing at the entrance of the alley. “I seem to have offended the locals.”

“You will pay in blood!” bellowed the person closest to her. Azula’s smile turned callous and the bolt whip slithered through the air under her hand. 

“Azula, what did you do to offend them?” Zuko said, nearly pleading. Sokka wasn’t sure if he could join in the action if he didn’t know what it was about. 

“One of them made a pass at me so I choked him out with my whip,” Azula said innocently. 

Zuko shut his eyes and breathed deeply. Sokka wasn’t sure her reaction was entirely justified, but he also knew that people had to defend themselves out in the world. She was definitely taking defense to a whole new level. 

“I’m Sokka,” said Sokka. 

“I don’t care,” said Azula. Fair enough. 

“Aarghh!” bellowed the one at the back. The four of them charged. Sokka drew his arm back to throw. Zuko raised his blasters. Azula cackled and circled her whip. 

The angry machete group never reached them. There were four shwicks and four big thuds. They went down at exactly the same time. The hand of the one in front landed on Azula’s foot and she kicked it away. 

At the end of the alley, silhouetted against the blue glow of the streetlights, stood Suki, Katara, Toph, and Aang. Aang’s fingers rapidly hit buttons on his wrist controller and APPA gilded back to hover over his shoulder. 

“Well that’s too bad,” Azula said calmly, coiling her whip into her belt. 

Zuko lowered his blasters slowly, as if he was having a hard time coming to terms with what just happened. 

“Thanks guys!” Sokka called to the gang. It was in moments like these that he really felt supported and cared for. The foundation of a good friendship was using teamwork to beat people up in back alleys. 

“No problem snoozles!” Toph called back. Sokka felt a bit embarrassed by the nickname, but he didn’t let it show.

Azula was already walking to the back door of the kitchen. Zuko frowned, watching her go. 

Sokka clapped him on the shoulder, “Go do what you gotta do. Seems like you have a lot on your plate.”

“Did I mention that it’s going to be a long fucking year,” said Zuko. 

“I think you might be right about that one,” Sokka realized that Zuko was about to leave, “Wait, get your pager.”

Zuko holstered his blasters and dug in his pocket. After a second he produced a square piece of clear plastic. It lit up orange with the exposure. Sokka fished for his own and knocked the edge against Zuko’s. They both flashed purple and displayed ‘New Contact Added’. 

“There, now you can buzz me anytime you wanna dance.”

“I thought we established I don’t dance.”

“I thought we established you already know how.”

"I’ll _spar_ with you any day,” said Zuko. Was it just Sokka, or was he actually smiling? 

Sokka raised his hands, boomerang still in his left, and backed down the alley, “I might even win next time. You know where to find me!”

The door slammed shut behind Zuko, echoing off the concrete. Sokka walked into the brilliant night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> APPA is a good boy!


	4. Dearly Departed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If Zuko bends fire, Sokka bends annoying.

“Do we have to go there again? All my skirts smell like beer now.”

“All your skirts smell like beer because you keep spilling on yourself, Ty.”

“Still, the uptown clubs are way nicer.”

“The crowd at Astoria is more fun. Everyone’s too scared to try to hit me uptown.”

“Do you mean hit on you?”

“No.”

They were in Zuko’s car tonight. Azula had sent hers to yet another mechanic to try to remove the autopilot. Zuko was pretty sure no one who saw the slightly deranged slant of Azula’s smile would ever think it was a good idea to take off the autopilot. His car was slower, but bigger and louder too, running on biocombustion instead of nitro. It pulled up to the curb a block away from the Astoria Hotel and they all piled out. 

There was no line out front. It was a quieter night. Zuko was glad. While Azula and Ty Lee liked the noise and the clamour of Saturday nights, Zuko could barely hear himself think, or hear Mai at all. He set his plan for the night as they walked in. He wanted to have one or two drinks and pretend that he was just like everybody else in blissful anonymity. 

“Hotman! What’s up!”

Or not. 

Sokka loped towards him from one of the low tables behind the empty dance floor. At the table, it looked like Suki and Toph were deep into an arm wrestle with Aang and Katara cheering them on. The drone hovered over Aang’s left shoulder. 

Azula surveyed the scene, lips curling up, “Mai, get us some drinks. Ty, do you wanna see me win an arm wrestle?”

Zuko shared an unimpressed look with Mai, but she wandered off to the bar anyway. 

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Sokka said, “Toph’s got a pulse cuff and Suki beats me sometimes.”

He flexed his arm, making his bicep jump. Zuko raised an eyebrow. It was kind of impressive, but cocky as shit. Sokka wasn’t wearing the blue and grey long sleeve henleys he’d been wearing the other nights. Today he had on a navy blue shirt with cut off sleeves and grey cargo pants. He wouldn’t have been let into any of the uptown clubs like that, and for some reason it made Zuko like him more. He didn’t look like anything that had hurt Zuko before. Although, there was a first time for everything. 

“And what about the other one, with the braids?” Azula said, still considering the table. 

Sokka frowned, “Katara? I mean you can try. I don’t know if she’d want to.”

Azula stalked towards the table with Ty Lee on her heels, “She will.”

Sokka turned to Zuko, “Is your sister always like that?”

“Like what? Itching for a fight?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah. We’ve both got daddy issues and mommy issues, and even uncle issues, if I’m honest. I cope by drinking. She copes with provoking strangers. We deal.”

Sokka laughed loudly, blue eyes crinkling, “In that case, let’s get you a drink.”

They walked over to the bar and took up two free stools. Sokka flagged down the bartender who gave him a look of pure hatred, but he came over to take his order. 

“What’s with hotman?” Zuko asked, remembering the greeting from earlier. 

Sokka chuckled to himself, “You know, thermal blasters… hot…”

Zuko stared at him. Sokka burst into a full bellied guffaw. 

“I can’t believe I’m talking to you right now,” Zuko muttered, “I swear I’m losing brain cells by the second.”

“You’ll think I’m really funny when you’ve got just one left,” Sokka said, still laughing. 

“Looking forward to it.”

Zuko took his whiskey glass from the bartender, realizing he’d let Sokka pay for his drink. No one had bought him a drink in a long time, or at least no one he’d wanted to buy him a drink. He took a sip, feeling the burn in his throat. 

A loud group came in through the front door. The light from the neon sign in the hall flickered green for a moment, then the door shut again. That flicker was enough for Zuko to get a good look. It was Jet, tailed by his gang of jackasses, obnoxious as ever. Zuko downed the rest of his drink, shifting so he was hidden behind Sokka’s form. 

Sokka turned to see what made Zuko’s jaw clench, “Who’s… wait, I totally know those guys,” he turned back to Zuko, a bit of steel in his voice, “They suck so bad.”

“You know them?” Zuko asked quietly. He’d run into Jet and his gang a few times back in Ba Sing Se. They were a rough group, but that was back when Zuko was trying to prove himself with blood on his fists. They’d gotten along great. Then Jet showed up again at Ty Lee’s party in Omashu. The timing was perfect for something terrible. Zuko had his guard down and his mind in the clouds. Jet had a bone to pick with Azula. They started something they shouldn’t have. Zuko thought it was just sex, he was wrong. Jet thought he could use Zuko, he was wrong. The whole thing was wrong. 

And now he was here, just when Zuko thought he had slipped away unnoticed. 

“Yeah I know him,” Sokka said, there was a cold bite in his blue eyes that Zuko hadn’t seen before. He didn’t really know Sokka all that well. “He got Aang and Katara mixed up in some bad shit last year. Had them running stolen parts and called it revolution. I got them out, but it wasn’t pretty. They still don’t know everything that went down.”

Zuko could understand the coldness in his stare now. He would have been murderous if anyone tried to manipulate Azula like that, not that she could be manipulated by anyone but their father. Still, it was almost relieving to hear someone else hated Jet just as much as he did. 

Jet and his group walked up to the bar, on the far side from Zuko and Sokka. Sokka leaned forward, but it wasn’t enough. Jet spotted Zuko through the smoke. Zuko’s heart pounded hard against his ribs. It was a mix of feelings, rage, hatred, hurt. He hadn’t felt this way since the last time he saw Jet almost a month ago. Jet looked surprised, but then cocked his head, smirking like he knew something Zuko didn’t. Zuko didn’t find it anywhere as attractive as he had when he was high. And he didn’t do that anymore. So now Jet just looked like a B rate asshole. 

Zuko looked away. 

“You know,” Sokka said, “If we’re really lucky the ceiling will collapse and kill him and we don’t even have to act upset about it.”

“I’m not that lucky,” Zuko said, watching Jet walk towards them. Sokka finished his drink and spun on the stool to face him.

“Would you look at that, landfills can walk,” Sokka drawled, leaning back against the counter, “The miracles of modern science.”

Jet ignored him, unsettling gaze on Zuko, “Long time no see.”

“Yeah, you must have had to wait a while after I kicked your ass into last century,” said Sokka.

“We should talk,” Jet said, valiantly ignoring Sokka. Zuko pressed his hands into his thighs so Jet wouldn’t see them shake.

“Talk about how you could solve the oil shortage with your hair or talk about what a weak ass bitch you are,” said Sokka. Jet’s jaw clenched but he didn’t engage. Zuko felt trapped. He hated feeling trapped. 

“You haven’t been responding to my messages. You know I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he placed a hand on Zuko’s knee. A peanut hit him in the face. Jet flinched. Out of the corner of his eye, Zuko saw Sokka with a rubber band between two fingers, preparing to launch another peanut. 

The absurdity of it snapped Zuko out of his paralysis. 

Zuko pushed Jet’s hand away roughly, “You meant to hurt my sister, and you should know better than to think messing with me was the way to do it.”

As if to prove his point, there was a loud slam and a victory cry from the other side of the room. Ty Lee clapped and jumped next to a smiling Azula while Katara rubbed the back of her hand. Zuko bet that Azula dug her nails in for ‘extra grip’. It’s what she used to do when they were kids. 

“He makes a good point Jetty boy,” said Sokka, “You should go tell _her_ how you really feel. Your cronies won’t be able to save you then.”

Jet finally faced Sokka, “What’s your problem? I left your little friends alone like we agreed. Now fuck off.”

Sokka stretched an arm over his head, letting his elbow come to rest on Zuko’s shoulder casually. Zuko lifted his chin, meeting Jet’s confused look head on.

“See that’s the thing, butterbrain. I’ve made more friends.”

“Come on, Zuko would never be interested in some country bumpkin like-”

Zuko drew his blaster and leveled it at Jet’s forehead. 

“Like who, Jet?” said Zuko, voice low, “I think I remember you coming up in Ba Sing Se. But you’re not from there, are you. Where are you from, Jet?”

Drawing his blaster might not have been the smartest move. Jet’s gang flanked his sides in an instant, powering up ray guns and laser axes. Mai appeared next to Zuko silently, hands full of glowing red knives. But then the drone zoomed to hover over to Sokka’s shoulder and Suki leapt onto the bar behind him. Ty Lee popped up beside Mai. Katara, Aang, and Toph faced down Jet’s people. 

In the tense stillness of the room, the clicks of Azula’s footfalls were unmistakable. Everyone held their breath, even the patrons at the other tables. Azula walked slowly, uncoiling her whip and twisting it through the air. 

“I was winning just then. Who are you to spoil my night?”

Jet turned slightly, trying to keep one eye on Zuko and one on Azula, trying to parse out the bigger threat. The fact that he didn’t know after all of this time was almost hilarious. So much effort trying to get back at Azula for some insult and he still didn’t see her for the danger she was. 

“We’ve met before. You told me my family wasn't good enough to live in the city. I’m just as worthy as all of you,” Jet said. Zuko could tell he was trying to sound threatening, but it didn’t play off so well with a thermal blaster pressed to his forehead. 

“And it looks like I was right the first time,” sniffed Azula, she looked past Jet, “Do you need me to take out your trash big brother?”

Zuko shook his head looking Jet dead in the eye, “He’s not worth the clean up.”

Azula laughed coldly, “If I were you,” she snapped her bolt whip through the air with a crackle of electricity, “I’d leave with your limbs intact.”

Jet seemed to do some very simple math. He had three back up goons and no weapon in his hand facing nine slightly confused and highly powered up people. If Sokka had gotten one up on him, there was no way this would go even okay for him. 

Jet raised a hand and shoved Zuko’s baster away, “Fine. Let’s go, you guys. This place’s shitty anyway.”

The bar didn’t breathe until the door swung shut behind them. 

“Okay,” said the bartender, pointing his finger at the red neon sign above the shelves that read ‘No Visible Weapons’. “Who started it?”

Everyone looked at Zuko. He shrugged. 

After a fairly one-sided argument, he and Sokka both got kicked out of the bar. 

“The last time I got kicked out of a bar wasn’t my fault either,” Sokka complained. They stood halfway down the block from the front entrance so the bouncer couldn’t see them. 

“What did you do last time that wasn’t your fault?” Zuko said sarcastically. It started to rain. 

Sokka scrunched his nose up at the sky. Drops splashed off his cheeks refracting the blue and yellow lights from the other bars and clubs on the street. The clouds hung low over the city like a bruised purple ceiling. 

“Aang challenged one of the hired dancers to a handstand competition. He won, but kicked her in the face accidentally on the way down. Security got us all, even though he was the only one doing handstands in the first place!” 

A steady stream of water dripped uncomfortably from Zuko’s hair down his back. He took out his pager and buzzed Mai. She replied right away, saying Azula was now making everyone in the building arm wrestle her and taking it to blows when she lost. They were gonna be a while. 

“D’you want to get out of here?” Zuko asked. 

Sokka looked at him curiously, “What do you mean? My friends are still in there.”

Zuko raised an eyebrow, “Have you never gone out without them before or something?”

“Actually…” Sokka scratched the back of his neck, “No. Not in the city. We kind of stick together.”

“Stick togeth- you know what, you have a pager, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And your friends can contact you if they need to, right?”

“Yeah…”

“And you trust me not to murder you in a gutter, right?”

“...No… I mean you don’t seem like a serial killer, but the possibility is never zero.”

“Fine,” Zuko said frustratedly, “I’m going to be dry in my car down the block. If you think I’m going to kill you, don’t come.”

Zuko walked for about three seconds before he heard footsteps on the pavement rushing to catch up. 

“So,” said Sokka when he caught up, “was Jet that guy you were talking about before? The one who dumped you when you didn’t know you were dating?”

Zuko did not want to be having this conversation. But, Sokka had kind of defended him back at the bar, he deserved an explanation. 

“Yeah, he hasn’t buzzed me since he left Astoria tonight, so maybe that’s all sorted out. I will not miss him when he's gone.”

Sokka laughed self deprecatingly, “We have completely opposite issues.”

“How so?”

“You’ve got a guy that you couldn’t get rid of, and I...”

“You’re still hung up on that girl?” Zuko guessed. The way Sokka had talked about her when they first met sounded like she really did a number on him. 

Sokka shook his head slowly as if sorting something out in his head, “I was going to say that, but I think I might not be as hung up as I thought I was.”

They reached Zuko’s car, sharp angles of black metal making it look like a beast in the blur of the rain. Sokka stopped beside him, peering at the car suspiciously, like it might bite him.

“How so?” asked Zuko.

Sokka looked from the car back to Zuko, “There’s someone else I’ve been thinking about recently.”

“Anyone I know?” Zuko said, feigning innocence. And there it was again, written all over Sokka’s face. A tilting head, a grinning mouth. Trouble. 

“I’d say so. I seem to remember them saying they’d fuck me.”

Zuko raised an eyebrow and met Sokka’s blue eyes, “I seem to remember you saying hypothetically.”

“And what if it wasn’t,” Sokka said, moving into Zuko’s space, “Would you want that too?”

The rain pattered softly on the concrete city. Zuko could barely hear it over his own pulse. Sokka was still grinning and Zuko suddenly wanted to feel that jawline under his teeth. 

“Only if your game is as good as your talk.”

“What talk? I’m all game.”

“You said you’d make me forget my own name. That’s a bold statement coming from a guy with a ponytail.”

Sokka didn’t frown or pull back like Zuko expected him to. Instead he leaned forward close enough that Zuko thought he was going to kiss him. A tingle ran down Zuko’s spine and this time it wasn’t from the rain.

At a near whisper, he said, “Why don’t you unlock the car, and see if I do?”

Zuko thought that was a great idea. His hand wrapped around the handle behind him. It clicked open, recognizing his fingerprint. Zuko stepped to the side, letting the door swing open. 

“You’re on.”

He grabbed Sokka by the collar and drew him in after scooting along the back row of seats to make room. The door clicked shut automatically. 

“You sure?” asked Sokka into the dim gloom. The tinted windows turned everything dull orange. It painted the slopes of Sokka’s face in a softer light than the neons of the bar. 

“Yes,” mumbled Zuko, sliding his hand from Sokka’s collar to the back of his neck, “Now stop talking.”

They stopped talking.

Zuko couldn't say he forgot his own name, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember why he'd kept Jet around for so long when there was someone out there in the world who could make him feel like _this_. It was skin and hands and lips and teeth. It was sloppy and reckless. Sokka didn't seem to know the consequences he might risk from even touching Zuko, and they did more than just touch. It might have been the closest Zuko had ever come to blacking out nearly sober. 

After, when he caught his breath and remembered where he was, he chucked Sokka's shirt at him and told him to get lost.

Sokka laughed, tugging on the shirt, "Sure thing, hotman. Will you miss me when I'm gone?" There was a flush over Sokka's cheeks and his hair had come loose somewhere in the middle. Zuko vaguely remembered raking his hands through that hair, it was softer than his own. He wanted to feel it again when he wasn't so... distracted. But that would be crossing a line, in his mind. A touch like that would be gentle, tender. There was no tenderness in how they'd moved together. He kept his hands to himself. 

"Not if you don't get gone in the first place," Zuko said sarcastically, "So scram before my sister finds you." He didn't think he would miss Sokka, but he would want to see him again. They were two different things.

"What? Is your sister gonna defend your honour?" Sokka said, incredulous. 

"No," Zuko tugged on his own shirt, "But if she finds out we fucked on the upholstery, she's gonna be pissed."

"Dude, this is your car."

"Have you met my sister?"

"Fair point."

"And we revisit the point: get lost."

"You just say the sweetest things."

"I'll say anything to get you to leave right now."

"Say you think I'm cool."

"Fine, I think you're cool," Zuko said insincerely, nudging Sokka's thigh with his foot, "Now get out." 

Sokka opened the door, but didn't get out entirely. His sly grin made Zuko wary. Nothing good followed that particular expression on Sokka's face. 

"Say I'm a better fighter than you."

"No, that would be a lie."

"You don't know until you try."

"We literally just had sex, are you really doing this right now?"

Sokka peered down the sidewalk, "No, because your sister is almost here."

"What?" Zuko spun to check. The sidewalk was empty. Sokka laughed, finally getting out of the car and shutting the door. He made a ghoulish face at the glass, then started walking back towards Astoria. 

Zuko watched him the whole way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can feel myself turning into an Azula stan account and I'm not mad about it.


	5. Never Say Die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some people just don't know when to quit.

Zuko had to admit it, he was bored. 

It was a different kind of boredom than he was used to. He was used to the kind of boredom that came along with nothing phasing him anymore. That kind of boredom was easy to deal with, he’d just coast along behind Azula and see where the night took them, unbothered by any turn of events. It felt more like drifting, he had nowhere better to be, nothing better to do, so he would be bored at a fancy club, bored in a street race, bored getting shot at. 

This was a much worse kind of boredom, it was impatient.

“If you glare any harder you’re gonna get wrinkles,” Ty Lee observed. 

Zuko glared at his glass harder. 

“I’m sure your pet will turn up if you call him,” Azula drawled. Zuko’s eyes snapped up to her. He didn’t think she had been paying attention. She sat across from him at a table in Astoria. It was late in the night, late enough for them to have gotten fed up and left the near dead bar, but Azula hadn’t suggested it yet. So they nursed their drinks and chatted. Or rather listened to Ty Lee and occasionally Azula chat.

“I’m not going to call him, and he’s not my pet,” Zuko insisted. Azula’s lips curled but there was no warmth in her eyes. 

“Is he your plaything then? There’s nothing wrong with that, easier to explain to father.”

Zuko’s fingers clenched around the glass. It would be best if his father didn’t know anything at all. As long as Azula came back from Omashu in one piece, that’s all that should matter. But it wasn’t and Zuko wasn’t lucky enough to keep his secrets secret. 

“He’s just a guy,” Zuko sighed. 

Azula’s eyes slid to a spot over Zuko’s shoulder, “Then prove it.”

Zuko turned to see Aang, Katara, Suki, Toph, and Sokka pile through the door. Toph wore a shirt that said ‘sometimes I think, sometimes I don’t’ in warped letters. Zuko could see where she was coming from.

Aang lifted his hand and waved in their direction. Azula’s smile turned cruel. She waved him over. 

**********

Sokka nearly had a meltdown when the train had ground to a halt on the tracks. He was antsy as a baseline, but to be stuck in a magtrain between stops when he had somewhere else he wanted to be was near unbearable. When the train had started moving again two hours later, Suki had to physically restrain him from clapping. 

The bar was understandably quiet when they eventually turned up. It was only an hour and a half till close. Aang waved to a group sitting at a table out on the floor. The group cut a striking picture, a table of choppy black hair, flashing rings, black and red. Well, except for Ty Lee who wore a baby pink cropped sweater. 

Zuko’s eyes landed on him for a moment then slid away. Sokka frowned a bit. He was playing it cool. Fine. They could do that. Even though Zuko had thoroughly raised his standards for a variety of things in that car the other night, Sokka supposed he didn’t owe him anything more. Sokka followed Aang over to the table, trying not to look at Zuko too intently. 

“Hey!” said Aang, “You guys are here again.”

“This is my favourite new spot,” said Azula leaning back in her chair. Toph saluted to Mai who returned the gesture. Suki and Katara, just beside Sokka, seemed to be glaring at Azula. He sidestepped around them.

“I think it’s great! Really old school,” agreed Aang. 

Sokka plucked Zuko’s drink from the table and took a big sip. Zuko whacked him in the arm with the back of his hand while Sokka sputtered theatrically, “Dude, I have no idea how you can drink that stuff.”

“It’s not for the taste,” muttered Zuko, prying the glass back out of Sokka’s hands and finishing the rest. Sokka grinned crookedly, at least Zuko wasn’t being too weird about the whole thing. A corner of Zuko’s mouth turned up. 

Azula continued her thought, “But I just have a problem.”

“What?” Aang’s brows pinched in confusion, “The music’s a bit weird on the weekdays, I guess.”

“You’re my problem,” said Azula. Sokka heard Zuko groan softly and trade a look with Mai next to him. Mai subtly rolled her eyes without moving her head. Sokka admired her skill. 

“What do you mean?” asked Aang. Across the table, Katara’s eyes went cold. Sokka would have traded a look with Toph if he could, she’d be able to see this quickly going south. She just cracked her knuckles looking in the general direction of Azula. 

“I mean you called a tie at holo, so now we have to play something else to settle it.”

“Like darts?”

“I was thinking something more like tag.”

“You want to play tag?”

“Something like that. I think the back alley is the perfect arena.”

“For tag?” asked Aang, still confused. 

Toph finally had heard enough, “She means she’s going to try to beat the shit out of you while you run, Aang.”

Aang’s eyes went wide and APPA automatically hovered closer to his shoulder.

“What the fuck,” blurted Sokka. Azula’s stare turned on him and he almost wished he hadn’t said anything, she was intense. Still, “He’s just a kid, what’s wrong with you?”

Zuko tensed in his chair and Sokka sensed he’d made a mistake, but he couldn’t see where it was going. Azula slowly brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes and turned back to Aang.

“Are you just a kid? You must be eleven or twelve.”

And Sokka saw it. Azula was sharper than he gave her credit for. He’d played right into her hands and there wasn’t much any of them could do to turn this around, not even Katara. If there was one insecurity Aang had, it was about how young he looked. It wasn’t an issue of masculinity necessarily, he and Sokka had been around the girls long enough to stop thinking as much like that. But still, it was something that really bothered Aang, a chink in his sunny armor. 

“I’m nineteen,” spat Aang through gritted teeth. 

“Oh, are you? Well are you going to let your pals treat you like a kid, or are you gonna face me like a man?”

“Aang don’t listen to her,” pleaded Katara, “Let’s just go somewhere else.”

“Aang she’s just trying to get in your head,” reasoned Suki. 

“Let’s play darts instead, if Toph misses the board and hits me again, it can be ten points,” said Sokka.

Aang wasn’t listening. From his look, Sokka knew he was already in his head, imagining himself winning, proving her wrong.

“Can I at least get a drink first?” said Toph. 

“No,” said Azula and Aang in unison. 

“Let’s go!” cheered Ty Lee, jumping up from her seat. Everyone stood. Ty Lee led the way to the back door at a skip. 

“That’s the right idea folks,” called the bartender, “Take it outside.”

Sokka wound up walking beside Mai. Zuko was somewhere up ahead. 

“What are the odds your girl is gonna let this be a friendly match?” Sokka muttered out of the side of his mouth. 

“About the same as your boy backing down,” Mai said in monotone. Shit. 

“This is gonna end badly, isn’t it?”

“Depends on your definition of badly.”

“Blood, sweat, and/or tears?”

“You can bet on it.”

“It?”

“All three.”

“Shit.”

They pushed out into the alley. The door slammed shut behind them.

Aang walked to the far end of the alley, closer to the street. He rolled his shoulders as he walked, Katara muttering in his ear. Sokka knew by the look on her face, she was feeding Aang strategies. 

Azula took the darker side of the alley. There must be an exit somewhere back there, but it was too far and poorly lit to tell. Ty Lee and Mai flanked her sides, Zuko in the back. With his pitch dark hair and deep maroon top, he nearly vanished into the shadows. Until he powered up his thermal blasters. They glowed red-orange in his hands. He caught Sokka looking and cracked his neck. Sokka drew his boomerang. 

“Should we decide rules?” Katara suggested. 

Azula laughed coldly, “I don’t need rules. We go one on one until someone stops moving.”

She said it maliciously, like she wanted it. Sokka gulped, he had no idea what Aang had done to warrant any of this. Aang just nodded to himself and pressed some buttons on his wrist. To be frank, Sokka didn’t know how Aang could lose this one. He had APPA with its AI tracking and kindness darts. How would Azula compete?

“Count us in, Ty,” Azula ordered. Ty Lee bounced to the halfway point of the alley and lifted her hands with a flourish.

“Ready? One…. twothree!” she said the last two numbers in a rush and dropped to the ground, the lash of Azula’s whip just missing her head. Aang, caught off guard had to duck wildly to avoid the whip. 

“Not fair!” said Katara.

“Who said anything about fair?” said Ty Lee, rolling out of the firing range. Everyone who wasn’t fighting pressed to the walls of the alley out of the reach of Azula’s whip. 

Aang hit some buttons and APPA advanced, firing a dart in Azula’s direction. She knocked it out of the air and it fell with a fizzle. Huh, Sokka had never seen anyone move as fast as APPA. Azula launched a counter attack towards the drone and Aang had it swerving out of the path of her whip. The alley lit up white blue with every thrash of the bolt whip through the air. 

Beside him, Suki whispered a play by play into Toph’s ear. Toph followed action well enough, but a lot was happening here, and fast.

Aang shot a volley of darts this time. Azula rolled, but one of them grazed her shoulder. She stood, lifted a hand to her shoulder, and inspected it coldly. Sokka held his breath and reached for Suki’s hand. She took it, eyes still glued to the fight. 

“You’re going to wish you didn’t do that, flyboy,” Azula said. 

“You’re going to have to try harder to beat me,” taunted Aang. Sokka thumped his head into the wall behind him. If anything, Azula did not need to be goaded right now. A disturbing unhinged smile split her face and she reached around her belt loops.

“Press your advantage, Aang!” Katara called. Aang jumped to it, advancing down the alley and firing more volleys at Azula. She waved her whip in graceful arcs, following the trajectory of the darts with a fizz fizz fizz. Sokka couldn’t see the darts now, they were too small in the dim light. 

Azula pulled out what she had been reaching for. Sokka’s heart sank and his grip on Suki’s hand tightened. It was another bolt whip. 

“How’s that going to help?” Toph asked when Suki described it. 

“It’s gonna give her a wall,” said Suki. An instant later, she was proven right. 

Azula moved like lightning. Her whips became a white hot blur through the air. None of the darts could get through. APPA whizzed higher and she just shifted the plane of the whips. If they were fighting together, Suki and Sokka would be on Azula’s exposed side in an instant while Toph beefed up the head on strikes and Katara skirted to the sides. But Aang was alone. 

An edge of a whip darted out from the wall and struck at Aang. He noticed it too late and took a near full blow to the arm. He cried out and Sokka tensed to engage. Azula’s laugh rang through the alley. Aang righted himself quickly, determination setting in his eyes. 

Sokka chanced a glance away to gauge Zuko’s reaction. He was in the same position he started in, face boredly impassive. Was this regular for him? He had said his sister was a piece of work, and Sokka believed him, but was this bloodlust what he meant?

A fast series of movements drew his attention back to the fight. 

Aang sent APPA low, looping under Azula’s whips, firing a shot, then zipping back towards Aang. When the drone reached him, Aang leapt into the air, landing on top of the drone. Sokka had seen him do it before, but only once or twice. It gave him a better view and kept him away from attacks at himself, but it was risky too. APPA banked wide above Azula’s reach and fired a volley as Aang passed. Azula twisted and snapped the whips as Aang soared above her, but the wall of electricity wasn’t as steady. A dart sunk into her trap muscle. She screamed and doubled over. 

Aang, atop APPA, swerved back over the alley and landed in his original starting point. He didn’t look happy by any means, but there was that grim set of his jaw that told Sokka he’d done what he needed to. 

“So is it done then?” Toph asked Suki. Sokka released her hand, he hadn’t realized he’d been clenching it so tightly. At the other end of the alley, nobody moved. Azula’s bolt whips lay crackling on the asphalt like ghostly snakes. Zuko hadn’t moved from his spot, thermal blasters still glowing. Actually, neither Mai nor Ty Lee had gone to help Azula up or even ask if she was fine. Sokka hadn’t been hit by a kindness dart before, but he knew they usually flattened anyone they struck. But Azula… was still on her feet.

“It’s not over yet,” he realized, “She’s gonna get up.”

“How the hell is she gonna get up? No one gets up for like half an hour when Aang gets them,” Suki said, watching Azula.

“Unless she’s a tough motherfucker,” said Toph, “Some of the guys I used to run into in the ring fights would stab themselves with kindness darts to see if they could build immunity. None of those blockheads succeeded, obviously, but it could happen.”

“Aang!” Sokka called, “it’s not done yet!”

Aang’s eyes went round as he watched. There was a clink against the ground. The dart rolled over the warped alley pavement. Azula rose to her full height, unhinged smile replaced with a snarl. Sokka could see the family resemblance in that moment. 

“Hey,” Aang said, “We can call it here. It was a good round.”

Azula laughed sharply, “We’re not finished.”

Aang put his hands out in a calming gesture, “We can stop here, it’s okay. Nobody else has to get hurt.”

Even though Azula moved like lightning, Sokka saw it in slow motion. She lashed out suddenly, whip arcing through the air with a horrible hiss. The end of the whip wrapped around Aang’s wrist and the controller attached to it. He yelled, clutching his wrist and dropping to his knees. Yellow sparks skittered over the black pavement. APPA thunked to the ground, lights powering down.

“You’ve won, now let him go!” shouted Suki. Aang was gasping and twitching, trying not to fall sideways.

Azula was close enough now that Sokka could see her eyes. While her lips were curled in a snarl, her eyes… held nothing. It was like looking into the empty eye sockets of a Pol-Bot. 

She wasn’t going to let him go.

A blue orb flew through the air, engulfing Azula’s hand and solidifying. The whip around Aang’s wrist went slack as Azula pried at the cold plasma. Katara rushed over to Aang and gingerly unwound his wrist using the corner of her shirt. He sighed when his arm was free, leaning into Katara’s side. She stared down Azula across the alley with ice in her eyes. Azula smashed the cold plasma against the corner of the dumpster and it shattered off her hand.

Toph pushed off from the alley wall, “I guess we gotta finish this then,” she raised her fist and clenched it, engaging the exoskeleton, “Free for all!”

Sokka didn’t need to be told twice. 

He and Suki bounded for the dark end of the alley. Ty Lee passed them and Sokka had to lunge out of the way of her bat. She wasn’t gunning for them though, she just ran past after the near miss. 

With Aang and APPA down and out, they were looking at almost an even fight. Toph and Katara faced off against Ty Lee and Azula. Suki and Sokka raced towards Zuko and Mai. 

A red streak whooshed through the air between Suki and Sokka, barely missing Suki’s ear. She opened her fan with a green swirl and faced down Mai who crouched against the wall of the alley. Zuko seemed to be backing into the gloom, drawing Sokka further down the alley. 

“I was wondering when we’d get to have a rematch,” Sokka mused, keeping his eyes trained on the blasters even though they wanted to be looking at Zuko’s face. He was nearly a silhouette in the darkness. The only light came from Sokka’s boomerang and the thermal blasters. 

“You won’t like how this is gonna go,” said Zuko seriously. 

Sokka waved his boomerang indignation, “How do you know? I could have a blast beating you. Get it? Bla-”

Zuko attacked without warning. Sokka rushed to deflect the fireballs. 

“Shit, dude. No foreplay?”

Sokka didn’t wait for Zuko’s response, throwing his boomerang in a narrow arc around Zuko’s form. If the ion beam got Zuko, it’d probably break a bone or two. Sokka didn’t actually want to paralyze him, but it was tricky to control the flight path once it was out of his hands. 

Zuko dove out of the path of the beam, feet skidding on the wet pavement. Why were the alleys in Omashu always wet?

Sokka caught his boomerang and Zuko fired four shots in succession. Sokka nearly missed two of them aimed at his stomach. 

“Say, why don’t you come a little closer?” Sokka said through gasping breaths.

Zuko did just that. 

He broke into a run, feet pounding across the distance. Sokka raised his boomerang to throw, but Zuko was already there, firing a blast at Sokka’s arm while sweeping his foot low. Sokka jumped to avoid the kick and blocked the blast with his boomerang, but there was a punch he didn’t see coming. It struck his side and he bit his cheek. He landed on his feet already throwing his boomerang in a tight circle, catching it with his other hand. There was a cracking noise and Zuko’s thermal blaster shut off. Sokka grinned, tasting blood. His particle beam had broken Zuko’s blaster. 

Zuko frowned and tossed it to the side. Sokka spun the boomerang in his hand proudly. Zuko wasn’t breathing as heavy as him, but he looked kinda mad so Sokka thought they were even. 

It was maybe not the right moment for reflection. Zuko moved nearly as fast as Azula. He grabbed Sokka’s wrist, tugging him roughly. Sokka’s feet moved nearly on their own, he was momentarily surprised and couldn’t dig in his heels. Zuko used Sokka’s momentum to trip him, twisting them both in mid air.

The wind was knocked out of Sokka for the second time in as many minutes. At least this time Zuko’s hand was behind his head so he didn’t leave his brains on the concrete. Zuko straddled his waist, pinning the hand with the boomerang over Sokka’s head and his other arm with his knee. 

Sokka couldn’t do much more than wheeze for a minute. 

Zuko’s head turned, checking something back down the alley. He quickly switched the hand behind Sokka’s head for a thermal blaster against Sokka’s forehead. Right. He had another one.

Sokka hadn’t felt the cool press of a gun to his head in at least a few months. Sokka wouldn’t admit how unsure he was about Zuko blowing his brains out in the alley, and not in a good way. But then Zuko clicked the safety on.

“You’re not gonna shoot me. Is this really necessary?” he complained. Zuko looked good from this angle, his scar made his eyes stand out. Maybe they really were gold, or at least light brown. Sokka wanted him to come closer so he could make sure. 

Zuko wasn’t looking at him, still facing down the alley, “Yes. Now stay down.”

Sokka looked down the alley to see what was more exciting than him. Suki had Mai in a headlock, but her fluorescence fan was on the ground and Mai’s hands were still full of knives. Ty Lee swung her bat wildly at Toph who knocked it out of the way easily when it got too close. Both of them were laughing gleefully. 

At the end of the alley, Katara had separated Azula from one of her whips, but Katara’s arms were covered in new stings. Aang crouched over APPA, fiddling with the wiring and calling encouragement to Katara. Blue chunks of plasma clung to Azula’s clothes and skin. But every moment she wasn’t attacking Katara, she was watching the back of the alley. Watching Zuko. 

“Did she find out about the upholstery?” Sokka joked. 

Zuko looked pained, “Not yet, that’s a whole other cataclysm waiting to happen.”

“So why’re you on top of me with the gun when you could be just on top of me? It’s not like I’m gonna wiggle out of this. You’re heavier than you look, you know that?”

A smile pulled at the side of Zuko’s mouth, but he schooled his expression. “I can’t show any weakness.”

“What’s wrong with a bit of weakness? Everyone needs a hand every once in a while… speaking of which, my arm is totally falling asleep. If you could just move your knee...”

Zuko didn’t move his knee. Sokka relaxed into the ground. He was probably gonna be here until Katara won or Azula killed them all.

“You don’t understand,” Zuko said quietly, “I can’t show weakness, not ever. I’m-”

“Zuko!” shouted a voice that sounded a bit like Mai.

Someone tackled Zuko into the ground. Now free of the weight, Sokka scrambled to his feet, arms tingling back into feeling. Suki held the edge of her fan to Zuko’s neck. Dark blood dripped from a nasty cut on her cheek. Her hair was tangled and her eyes were fierce. Sokka knew the business edge of that fan was white hot, Zuko would not be enjoying that so much. 

“Thanks Suki!” said Sokka cheerily, “The guy was just talking some real bullshit.”

“Glad to help,” Suki said, still glaring down at Zuko. Zuko reached his hand beside him for his blaster, knocked just out of reach. It was a bit painful to watch. Sokka felt kind of bad, but he wasn't going to help Zuko either. Or at least he was pretty sure he wasn't. 

Mai saved Sokka from any more uncertainty by tackling Suki off of Zuko. The two rolled and rolled into the darkness. 

Zuko groaned as he pushed himself to sit. 

“Ha,” said Sokka, “Doesn’t feel good, does it?”

Just then there was a shout from the alley entrance, “Give it up, Azula! Just stop!”

Katara had managed to cover both of Azula’s hands in cold plasma and remove both of her whips from her clutches. Azula’s chest rose and fell in short stuttering breaths. 

“I suppose we can adjourn for now,” she said begrudgingly, blowing a strand of hair out of her eyes, “and resume another time.”

“Oh thank god,” muttered Zuko. Sokka extended an arm. Zuko took it and got to his feet. Mai and Suki walked out of the corner of the alley, still eyeing each other suspiciously. Toph disengaged her exoskeleton and Ty Lee collapsed her bat. They gave each other a high five. 

“How’s about we get electric slide over there out of her designer gloves,” Sokka suggested, “and go get a ‘none of us died-”

“-yet-” interjected Zuko.

“-drink’?”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Toph. She turned to Azula’s general direction, “C’mere wacko, I’ll pop the plasma.”

Azula surprisingly went over to Toph and held out her blue coated hands, although she didn’t look happy about it. Toph rested the pulse cuff knuckles against the surface of the plasma, drew back, and struck. The crystallized plasma shattered. Azula shook out her hands. 

“You’re welcome,” offered Toph. 

The nine of them filed back through the Astoria Hotel kitchen door. Toph went first, a blue speckled Azula following with Ty Lee skipping at her heels. Aang carried APPA under one arm and Katara inspected his seared wrist as they walked. Mai and Zuko hung back, so Suki and Sokka ducked through next. 

“Trying out a new makeup technique?” Sokka jibed. The blood from Suki's cheek made its way down her neck.

Suki rolled her eyes, “Trying out a new losing technique?”

“Hey! I woulda totally got him.”

“Sure, like you were gonna get out from under him any time soon.”

“Okay maybe not, but I _could_ have.”

The bartender gave them an offended look as they took up stools at the bar, one by one. “We close in forty minutes.”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Toph dismissively, “How much ice you got? My friends are awfully clumsy.”

Mai shuffled through her knives, a bruise forming on her cheek. Zuko inspected his broken blaster, a thin red line blistering just under his Adam's apple. Katara slung her plasma gun over her shoulder, wincing as the strap grazed one of her stings. The bartender sighed wearily and set the whole ice bucket on the bartop. Aang practically dove in. 

Sokka turned to Zuko abruptly, “We need to talk.”

Zuko looked taken aback for a second. Mai, on the other side of him, leaned over his shoulder. 

“I think you guys need to talk.”

“Mai- what?”

Mai met Zuko’s eyes and gave him an obvious look that made Sokka smile to himself. It reminded him of Katara when he was being especially stubborn. The rest of the group started to yell their orders at the hapless bartender.

“I think,” Mai said firmly, “You should talk.”

Zuko looked a bit confused, but he got up and followed Sokka across the empty dance floor to the hallway to the washrooms. Sokka would have to get a better read on Mai sometime. She seemed really cool. He had no idea why she was hanging out with Azula. 

“Look, Sokka I’m not going to apologize for shooting at you, it happened and I’m not going to take it back,” Zuko said, running a hand through his hair. Sokka tracked the motion, thinking of how good Zuko’d looked back in the alley. He looked good in a different way now, flushed and distracted. 

“You don’t have to say sorry,” Sokka said, letting his eyes drift down to Zuko’s, “But I do know a way you can make it up to me.”

“Why would I-”

“There happens to be a very empty bathroom, and a very empty thirty eight minutes to fill until close,” Sokka said, tipping his head meaningfully towards the washroom door. 

Zuko’s eyes widened a fraction, but then he seemed to catch on. He efficiently holstered his broken blaster.

“Fine, but I’m not taking off my shoes, they’re a bitch to untie.”

Sokka walked Zuko backwards through the door with a hand on his warm chest. The single light tube overhead flickered on automatically. Sokka walked until Zuko's back bumped up against the tiled wall.

“The things you say just make my heart flutter.”

Sokka said it sarcastically, but the way Zuko looked at him through his bangs, all fire, made Sokka’s heart falter in his chest. A smirk formed on Zuko’s lips. Oh, he knew what he was doing. 

Sokka couldn’t wait a second longer. Sometimes his impatience got the best of him.

They collided together like a car crash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the bartender is the cabbage man.


	6. Who Do You Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Azula and Aang play darts in a calm and orderly fashion while Zuko really leans into the whole emo thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case anyone has a familiar feeling about the chapter titles, this fic is based on the Astoria concept album by Marianas Trench. 
> 
> 2010's Canadian Alt Teens rejoice!

When the stool beside him creaked, Zuko knew right away who it was. Sokka had a habit of breathing out all at once when he sat down, nobody else Zuko knew did that. Zuko decided it was a bad sign he was learning Sokka’s habits. 

“How’s the burn?” Zuko asked, looking up from his first drink of the night. It was busy in Astoria and the bartender had taken a while to get to him. 

Sokka winked with his entire face, “Great, now that someone kissed it better.”

Zuko rolled his eyes and took a big sip. The difference between Sokka talking and Sokka... not talking was still mystifying to Zuko. Not that he didn’t like talking to Sokka, he just needed to adjust from the Sokka who he’d pressed up against the bathroom sink the other night. 

“I seem to remember you complaining when I accidentally brushed by it.”

“Yeah, well,” Sokka blustered, “It’s still healing. How’s your _blaster_?”

Zuko ignored the innuendo, “I’m gonna have to get it fixed. The only thermochanic who makes these is the worst to deal with.”

Sokka ruffled Zuko’s hair roughly and punched him on the shoulder, “They can’t be worse to deal with than you, right?”

Zuko whacked his hand away and flagged down the bartender. He hoped Sokka couldn’t see the flush in his cheeks. 

On the other side of the bar, Azula had gone to try out the darts. While Sokka ordered, Zuko checked to see if anyone had lost an eye. It was hard to see exactly what was going on through the people milling about in Astoria, but he spotted her eventually. 

Azula was setting up to throw a dart at the board. Standing beside her was Aang, inspecting the set of darts in his hands. The drone wasn’t with him tonight. Zuko had to admire his guts, not many people who’d gotten into it with Azula wanted to be anywhere within a city block of her. Or maybe the kid had got his own wires crossed when she fried his arm. There was no accounting for stupidity.

Ty Lee, Toph, and Suki chatted animatedly at a standing table nearby. Suki wore a dark brown sports bra and the same grey cargo pants Sokka had been wearing on the night they’d checked out the back seat of Zuko’s car. Zuko didn’t analyze it too much, there was no winning down that road. Toph had on a shirt with massive cartoon eyes printed across the chest and something like old fashioned jeans. Ty Lee spun in a circle in a white minidress Azula had told her not to wear. Zuko was glad that she’d done it anyway, she seemed happy.

Katara and Mai were the only ones really watching the dart match, and even then, only Katara was paying attention. Mai’s eyes slid to Zuko and her eyebrows drew together slightly. She was worried about him tonight. She had good reason, he was heading full tilt for a shitstorm. 

His father had called Azula that morning, demanding she return home for some formal announcement. If Azula was going, Zuko would be expected too. Ozai didn’t mention how long Azula’s ‘event’ might last. The last time had been three months on Ember Island. Zuko had come back from Ember Island angrier than he’d ever been. He could never figure out if it was at his father, his sister, or himself. 

Mai tilted her head questioningly. Zuko shrugged and turned back to Sokka. He knew why this time was gonna hurt so bad, it had plagued him all day. Sokka wasn’t his boyfriend, or pet, or plaything, or whatever Azula thought was going on. He just happened to be a guy Zuko was fucking. A guy who made him laugh and made his palms sweat and made him want to come back to this shitty bar forever. 

Sokka clinked his strangely opaque beige drink against Zuko’s and took a gulp. His face contorted as he swallowed. Zuko smiled, Sokka didn’t seem to like much other than beer. And there he went again, noticing things. Zuko almost wished for a way to erase the old hard drive before he went away. Ozai had likely heard from his staff what Azula and Zuko got up to, especially with the amount of fights they started and finished. Going home was going to suck enough already. Wanting something he couldn’t have would only make things worse. 

“I swear they make the house specials extra bad when they see me come in,” Sokka said, peering down at his drink. 

“I would usually say you’re being paranoid, but this bartender really hates you,” observed Zuko. The bartender seemed to be avoiding their general area tonight. Zuko didn’t blame him. 

“Like that’s fair, I get it,” Sokka said reasonably, “But I just don’t get why I keep paying so much for them. Next time you see me say ‘house special’, you have to shoot me. It’s the only way.”

Zuko couldn’t bring himself to respond. He just nodded and took a sip of his whiskey, letting the burn focus his thoughts. There probably wouldn’t be a next time. He couldn’t decide whether it was better to pretend it wasn’t happening, or to tell Sokka now. Making a big deal about it seemed like another invisible line in Zuko’s mind. It was something people did with close friends or family. He’d met Sokka two weeks ago. 

“C’mon Zoo-coo, don’t be down. I’ll charm this old guy into giving me the real drinks sooner or later,” Sokka said, rubbing his hands together. He turned to Zuko, inspecting his face for a moment. Zuko was too sad to squirm under the scrutiny. “What’s your deal? Are you reliving childhood trauma? I’m great at that!”

“Huh?” Zuko wasn’t entirely following. Sokka took another sip of his drink and grimaced like he forgot how bad it tasted. 

“Like all the shitty stuff that happened when you were a kid to make you this way,” Sokka elaborated enthusiastically, “Sometimes Katara and I play a game where we try and pinpoint the trauma that gave us some of our shared personality traits. It’s like astrology!”

“Huh?”

“We don’t have time to get into all that, but what’s bothering you tonight? Is it the scar?”

If Sokka was anyone else, Zuko would have decked him. “I don’t want to talk about that.”

Sokka lifted his hands in surrender, “Sorry, I just thought I could help out, you know? Basically the only things I know about you is what your dick looks like and your bar order,” the bartender walked by just then, giving Zuko a horrified look like it was his fault Sokka said that in his fine establishment. Sokka didn’t notice, or didn’t care, “There’s a certain amount of trust not knowing everything else, it’s like the best of both worlds for talking through your feelings.”

“I don’t need to talk through my feelings,” Zuko said, affronted. It was frowned upon at home, enough so that by the time he moved in with Uncle Iroh in Omashu, he couldn’t undo the instinct to bottle everything up until he snapped. 

“Now you’re bullshitting me again, everybody needs to talk about their feelings sooner or later,” Sokka declared. “It’s like, cathartic and shit.”

“Well I don’t need to talk to feel better,” said Zuko. Sokka raised his eyebrows, curious. “That’s what punching people is for.”

“Of course it is,” said Sokka, “But what do you do when there’s no people to punch?”

Zuko spun on the stool slowly to face him. The whiskey was flowing into his bloodstream, making him feel warm all over. “I go look for a smartass with nice arms who wants to see what’s in the kitchen.”

“A smartass- oh, me?” Zuko nodded. “In the kitchen?” Zuko nodded. “Now?”

They both looked around. No one was paying them attention. Azula and Aang were still deep in their game, Katara watching closely. Ty Lee was trying out Suki’s fluorescence fan while Toph blocked shots with her pulse cuff. Mai had been looking at them, but she turned away blankly as if she hadn’t noticed anything at all. No one could read a room like Mai. 

“Yeah,” said Zuko, “what the hell.”

Sokka left his drink on the bar. 

In the kitchen, Sokka fiddled with the door handle from inside the cramped room. Eventually he grabbed a mop and wedged it across the handle and the door frame. When it stuck, he did the same on the door to the alley. Zuko hopped up to sit on the counter next to the sink. The lights didn’t seem to be working and the exit sign bathed everything in dull red. Zuko felt a bit like he was in a pressure cooker. 

“There,” Sokka said, dusting his hands off, “if anyone breaks in, at least we’ll have a head start.”

He seemed to notice Zuko was staring into space, leaning back on the counter top. Sokka came over and planted his elbows on Zuko’s thighs, leaning his head on his fists to look up at Zuko. 

“We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. I can pretend to host a cooking show for an hour, if you want. I make a mean theoretical stir fry,” Sokka joked. The corner of Zuko’s mouth tugged sideways despite himself. 

He wondered what Sokka might think if he admitted that he just wanted to sit here quietly and hold his hand. Probably something about not being able to sit quietly for more than fifteen seconds. It was a moot point anyway. Now that Sokka was standing between his legs like that, looking up at Zuko like he’d give him anything he wanted, hand holding was nowhere near what Zuko wanted to do. 

Zuko reached over and tugged the band out of Sokka’s hair. The mahogany strands fell loose around his ears and in his eyes. Sokka looked different like this, an undone version of himself. And that was apparently all the convincing Zuko needed. 

“Are you gonna come closer, or what?” he demanded. 

Sokka grinned, “There he is. I was beginning to worry you were going to tap out.”

“That is definitely not the issue,” Zuko said, drawing his hands down the sides of Sokka’s head and under the corners of his jaw. At least Zuko got to properly feel the hair, he would have been mad at himself if he hadn’t.

“So what’s the issue?” Sokka breathed. 

Zuko kissed him roughly, drawing back before it got too deep, “You’re still in your clothes.”

“I think we can sort that out,” Sokka said. He moved forwards again, lips meeting Zuko’s. 

His hands crept up Zuko’s thighs and Zuko let his sadness disappear like the space between them. 

It was lucky that no one tested the doors. Zuko was pretty sure he would have ended anyone who interrupted them. For a little while, everything was simple. All there was in the world was the feeling of warm skin against his, the taste of whiskey in their mouthes, and the sound of their breaths filling the small room. 

By the time they were finished, Zuko had discovered about twenty five new bruises on Sokka’s body from the other night. The circular one on his ribcage from Zuko’s hit in the alley, Zuko felt bad about. The line across his lower back from the bathroom sink, Zuko did not feel bad about. Zuko was pretty sure he gained a few more of his own just then. The cracked kitchen counter was not necessarily designed for that activity.

They both leaned against the counter while Zuko wrestled with his belts. Why had he let Mai dress him today? She always went for the look and not for the practicality. They hadn’t been that difficult to take off, but now he couldn’t figure out what was supposed to go where. 

“This is painful to watch,” Sokka said abruptly, moving in front of Zuko and swatting his hands away. Sokka efficiently fit the loops and buckles together. Zuko didn’t know where to look. For some reason this felt more intimate than what they’d just been up to without clothes. 

“Thanks,” Zuko mumbled when Sokka stepped back to survey his handiwork. 

“Why the hell’d you wear a jigsaw puzzle to the bar?”

Zuko didn’t know how to say it was because most of his other clothes were packed into Ozai’s skycruiser. 

But he didn’t have to.

Something smashed against the door to the bar, making Sokka jump and Zuko swear. It sounded like glass. They looked at each other for a second, dreading what they were going to find.

“Odds Azula lost darts?”

Zuko powered up his working thermal blaster, “High.”

The scene that greeted them on the other side of the door was so much worse than Zuko thought. Almost immediately, he shoved Sokka out of the way of another flying bottle. It smashed somewhere behind them in the kitchen. 

It had been a busy night in Astoria. That meant there were a lot of tipsy people with a bit more firepower than they ought to have. Punches and ray blasts flew. Every table that wasn’t overturned had a brawl on top of it. It was too dark to see the back of the room and even if it had been, the smoke from plasma guns and particle blasters filled the room in a purple-ish haze. Wordless yelling rose like a wave in Zuko’s ears. He watched what looked like a teenage girl and an old man go blow for blow. Zuko watched a tooth skitter over the floor. 

“Found them,” Sokka said, pointing the edge of his boomerang towards the raised platform in front of the dance floor. There, Zuko saw an unexpected scene. 

Azula and Katara stood side to side with Toph and Ty Lee on one flank and Suki and Mai on the other. They blocked errant shots and kicked down anyone who tried to climb on the platform. Azula’s whips lit up her face in white flashes. She smiled as she struck a laser warper out of a man’s hand down on the floor. 

“What are they doing up there?” Sokka said. Zuko shrugged, he was just as lost. 

He noticed something behind them. Aang stood behind all of them on the platform, cradling something to his chest. It was difficult to make it out in the dark and smokey chaos. 

“Shall we?” Sokka said.

Zuko looked at him sideways, “Try to keep up.”

And they plunged into the fray. 

Zuko redirected anyone running at them with a sharp shove or a strike against their temple. When they looked like they were going to shoot, he shot first. They made their way slowly across the dance floor. Zuko was glad to have Sokka at his side. Not that he couldn’t handle himself, but he didn’t like having one less blaster. Sokka blocked lasers and plasma shots with his boomerang, covering Zuko’s unprotected side. 

A bald man with a plasma gun charged them. Zuko shot a thermal blast at his gun-carrying shoulder. Sokka blocked the plasma. Zuko kicked his legs out from under him. Sokka kicked the gun out of his hands. They moved on. 

When they made it to the platform, Azula had to pull back on her whip in mid-air to keep from striking Sokka down. Zuko tried not to pay too much attention to the arm he’d thrown up to cover Sokka’s face. 

“Watch it,” she said, turning to the next person running at them. Sokka shrugged and both of them hopped up onto the platform. 

“What’s going on?” Sokka asked Katara. A blast from the wrist of Toph’s exoskeleton suit lit up the left half of the bar in lime green. Zuko hoped whoever was on the receiving end deserved it. 

“Aang won darts and ran outside before there was another disagreement,” Katara said, sending another cold plasma orb into the crowd. It looked like Katara was trying to stop everyone from fighting by freezing their hands to tables, the floor, and each other. 

“How’d armageddon break out then?”

“When he was outside, a squirrel ran up his leg.”

“What the fuck? Aren’t they extinct?”

“This one’s full-on biomech, I think it was someone’s science project. Anyway, Aang brought it in to show everyone, but then people started noticing he had a squirrel. It started with offers to buy it, but then it turned into this. People pay good money for an extinct species-”

"-and people will do anything for good money," Sokka completed the sentence.

Someone ran at the stage and got Mai's knife in the shoulder for their trouble. Ty Lee hit them over the head with her bat for safety. Azula grinned when they went down. Zuko figured the three of them had decided to defend Aang because they got to hit more people. 

“I’ve got it!” Sokka said. Zuko didn’t know what he had. 

“I was hoping you’d say that,” said Katara gratefully, “What’s the plan?”

Sokka’s eyes slid from Katara to Zuko, irises lit up by the bursts of colour in the air, “We’re gonna start a fire.”

Zuko gave him an unimpressed look, “It sounds like I'm going to start a fire.”

Azula ducked suddenly and a chair shattered against the wall behind Aang and his… thing. 

“C’mon,” Sokka wheedled, “You know you want to.”

Zuko fiddled with the dial on his blaster, turning it up to the mid-range, “Fine, but you guys need to get to the alley as soon as I shoot.”

Sokka shook his head adamantly. Zuko met his eyes and for a split second they were locked in a battle of wills, “I’m not going to let you set a building on fire alone,” Sokka insisted, “This is my plan, I need the glory too.”

“It’s your funeral,” Zuko relented. He turned to Azula and Katara, “You guys need to get through that back door fast.”

“Won’t be a problem,” Azula said. She and Katara sized each other up. 

“We got it,” said Katara, “Meet you guys at the station.” She jogged to relay the message to everyone else. Azula tripped a woman running by with her whip. The woman hadn’t been heading for them, but Zuko didn’t say anything. 

“Do you need any suggestions?” Sokka said in Zuko’s ear, “I think I’d-”

Zuko raised his blaster and shot once at the ceiling over the dance floor, once over the hall to the bathroom, and once directly overhead. The fireballs exploded against the surfaces and immediately started eating away at the stained wood. The temperature in the room rose a degree.

“Well that’s one way to do it,” Sokka said. The yelling in the bar had turned to screams.

The others were already making a break for the back door, forming a kind of pathway for Aang to run with his creature. It was good that the kid was fast, people were crushing in at all directions to get out of the burning room. 

“One more to make sure?” Zuko said, aiming carefully. He’d have to get just the right moment not to kill everyone in the way. 

“Yeah,” Sokka said, “What the hell.”

Zuko saw his window. He fired. The shelves behind the bar exploded in an orange blaze. The heat of it made Zuko shut his eyes. It was too close to the heat he'd felt on his face only once before. Behind his eyelids, a shadow rose up through the flames. 

Sokka grabbed his hand. Zuko opened his eyes to a near empty room. It was just them and the flames licking over the ceiling and the smoke. They ran for the front door, jumping over the destroyed tables and chairs. 

They emerged into the night air coughing. Sokka put his hands on his knees wheezing for air. Even now he was still smiling.

“That,” wheeze, “was fucked up,” wheeze, “We gotta do that again sometimes.”

Zuko tilted his neck back, trying to let the clean-ish air flush out the smoke in his lungs. The taller buildings on the next street cast blue and yellow light down on them. They both sheathed their weapons.

“Let’s go,” Zuko said, “The Cryo-Bots are probably on their way.”

Sokka nodded, standing up, “Better than Pol-Bots, worse than Med-Bots. I like Med-Bots the best, they always give me more tranquilizers than the human doctors do. Something about me makes doctors tight-fisted with the good stuff.”

There was a streak of ash across Sokka’s cheek. Zuko pulled his sleeve over his hand and wiped it off. Sokka’s eyes rounded for a moment, Zuko’s hand paused on his cheek for a moment. He snapped out of it and pulled away. 

“You look like you just committed arson,” Zuko explained defensively. 

Sokka laughed with his full chest, “I’m pretty sure that was you.”

They started walking towards the station at the end of the street. 

“The difference is,” Zuko said, “You’ll be in deep shit if you get caught.”

“And you won’t?” Sokka asked, incredulous. The Cryo-Bot carrier whizzed by on the street, sending a rush of air across the street as it passed. The bot carriers always smelled like burning plastic to Zuko. 

“Oh I’ll be in deep shit,” Zuko said, “But I wouldn’t be in jail.”

Sokka peered at him suspiciously, “Are you some kind of escape artist? You totally have to tell me before I get arrested.”

“Not exactly,” Zuko said. He wasn’t sure if he was making the right call, but it was his last night in Omashu. He wanted Sokka to know that none of this his choice. He would have chosen differently. 

“Every scenario I’m imagining where you escape jail is probably worse than the truth,” Sokka said. 

“You know the landlord of Omashu?” 

“...yeah. I’m not a fan. He’s the reason my family can’t get a house in the city. The honourable bloodlines thing is so dumb.”

“He’s my father.”

Sokka did a double take, probably trying to see if Zuko was kidding. Zuko would have liked to be kidding. He wouldn’t have the scar if he was kidding.

“Oh shit.”

“Yeah.”

“So is that why Azula acts like the rules don’t apply to her?”

“I don’t think the rules would hold her down in any case, but yeah. She gets a stern talking to about image and perception every time she crashes a car or puts someone in the hospital.”

“I’d be causing problems left right and centre if I didn’t think I was gonna get booked. But you don’t do that. Well, not as on-purpose,” Sokka observed. 

Zuko knew why he didn’t feel quite as free as Azula, even this far from home. He got a bit more than a stern word when his father found out he’d made some mistake. But that wasn’t Sokka’s problem. 

“It’s different for me.”

“Eldest son pressure? I’ve been there man,” Sokka briefly clapped a hand on Zuko’s shoulder. They were nearly at the station. Zuko could make out a group loitering near the entrance. Now or never. Sokka deserved better than never. 

“I’m leaving,” Zuko said quietly, eyes trained on the concrete. 

“Huh? Yeah, we can’t go back to Astoria, it’s all crispy now.”

“No, Azula and I are leaving Omashu. For a few months, maybe more.”

“Oh.”

Sokka’s voice sounded small. Zuko could almost feel the mental war going on inside Sokka’s head. It was happening in his own. On the one hand, they didn’t owe each other anything. They didn’t really know each other and they hadn’t given too much that they couldn’t take back.

On the other hand, Zuko could hunt for the rest of his life and he wouldn’t find someone like Sokka. He didn’t think anyone could take his numbness, his anger, his turmoil, and turn it into something easy. But Sokka did that, and he was good with his hands on top of all of it. Zuko almost hoped Sokka didn’t feel the same, for his sake. 

“Do you wanna keep in touch or…” Sokka trailed off, a bit miserably. Zuko could see it in his mind already, Ozai would have a staffer hack Zuko’s pager to keep tabs on him. He'd find out about Sokka's undesirable heritage and how attached Zuko was getting. He'd drag them both into his office to find a permanent solution. He’d probably make Zuko do it too, to make sure he hadn’t gone soft. Zuko’s heart nearly shattered at the thought of it. 

“No,” he said sharper than intended. There was a wounded look in Sokka’s eyes and Zuko softened his tone, “No, it would only make things worse. I’ll be back sooner or later, but you don’t need to wait around or anything. I can’t make you any promises and that’s a shitty thing to wait for.”

Sokka nodded, as if he respected the practicality, “Okay, but if I see you again, it’s on sight.”

“What’s on sight?” Zuko asked. They were almost at the group. Azula and Mai were standing at the curb talking quietly beside the Basilisk. Everyone else surrounded Aang and the thing in his arms. 

Sokka laughed, “I’m not sure, it could be a happy reunion or it could be a smackdown. You’ll just have to show up and find out.”

"Okay."

Zuko’s reply was lost in the happy shouts and the pounding feet. Katara careened into Sokka, making him stumble back a few steps. Suki piled on and soon there was a five and a half person group hug filling up the sidewalk. 

Ty Lee waved to Zuko. They both joined the Mai and Azula at the car. 

“Glad you’re not dead,” said Mai. 

“Me too,” said Zuko. 

He looked back once. Sokka was barely visible under the bodies and chatter of his friends. It was relieving to see that he wouldn't be leaving Sokka completely on his own. He had people who loved him, people who would look out for him. 

This time, Zuko walked away first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is NOT an Ozai stan account.
> 
> Any thoughts on who the rodent might be?


	7. August Burns Red

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka doesn't need fire to burn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *hops on soapbox*
> 
> A common form of bi/pan-erasure is the promiscuous/easy trope which is really damaging, especially to young people trying to figure this stuff out. For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about; just because you could be attracted to more than one gender doesn't mean you want to sleep with everyone all the time. I don't mean to perpetuate this negative image or to use bisexuality/pansexuality as a trope. For the narrative arc things are gonna get a bit messy, but it's because the boy is a bit messy regardless of sexuality. Just know in your heart that being a sloppy bitch is not restricted by gender or sexuality. You can be the sloppy bitch you wish to see in the world!
> 
> *trust falls off soap box onto school gym floor*

Three months passed like faint lights through the magtrain windows. 

Since Astoria required some serious refurbishment, they went to different bars. Aang picked bars with holo tables and V-racing. Katara picked clubs with third wave music and experimental drinks with things like liquid nitrogen and carbon capsules. Suki picked clubs with flashing lights and crushing crowds. Toph took them to what she told them were vintage bars with live entertainment, but ended up being a series underground cage fights. Sokka didn’t pick anything. He was running low on ideas.

Sokka hadn’t realized how much he’d looked forward to going out before. Knowing someone would be waiting for him at the bar, scowling a little less when he noticed Sokka walk in, apparently made a difference. 

Now he followed whoever was leading the pack that night. He joked and jostled with the rest of them, but it was a bit less fun to run to Aang’s rescue when the opponent was just another faceless goon. Sokka had been hoping he and Aang would grow out of their knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong moment, but that particular talent was sticking around. At least all the narrow escapes gave him something to do. 

The newest addition had taken a bit of getting used to. Aang declared it was called Momo, and Sokka knew then that they’d be fighting off squirrel poachers for the foreseeable future. Momo had white fur, red eyes, and a metal circuit board on the back of their neck. And an attitude. Sokka had a collection of thin red scratches on his arm from the time he said Momo looked like a bleached rat. Aang was working on getting the squirrel connected to his wrist control system so he could talk to both Momo and APPA at the same time. He wasn’t quite there yet, but if Aang put his mind to it, it would get done sooner or later. 

Momo rode on Aang’s shoulder as they walked up to the entrance of the club Suki picked. Sokka could hear the bass from outside. A few clusters of people in black and metal took up space on the sidewalk. The bouncer gave Momo a weird look, but let them in without a hassle. A squirrel was probably not the weirdest thing he’d seen that night. 

Sokka was in a weird mood. He was antsy, but also exhausted. It had been exactly three months since Zuko went away. There were no messages on his pager, not that there should have been. Zuko had said he wasn’t sure what was going to happen and Sokka believed him. Still, this feeling like he was supposed to be doing something important right now made his skin itch. He wanted to jump in the mosh pit and scream along with the track, but the thought of it made him tired to his bones. 

“Let’s go!” cheered Suki. APPA swept low to Aang’s shoulder and Momo obediently scampered onto the drone. APPA and Momo rose somewhere above the strobe lights to safety. Aang was worried if he left Momo at home, it would accidentally run away. Sokka didn't think that would be the end of the world. Suki grabbed onto Toph who grabbed onto Katara who grabbed onto Aang. Aang reached out to Sokka, but he shook his head.

“You guys go on ahead, I’m going to head for the bar for a bit.”

Katara gave him a suspicious look, but Suki was already pulling them all into the wall of people. Sokka waved reassuringly and went to get a drink.

He ordered the house special and it didn’t taste half bad. 

The first drink went down easy. He felt his edginess start to loosen up. He ordered another. It went down easier than the first. The unpleasant weariness started to slip away too. He ordered another. 

When he was about halfway through his fourth, he noticed a woman standing a few feet away, waiting for her drink. She was platinum blonde with sweeping purple eyeliner that glowed light green under the dim lights. She reminded him a bit of Suki, not in a weird way though. She held herself confidently like she knew who she was. He could use some of that right now. She looked over at him and smiled. Sokka slid down the bar a little bit closer.

“So,” he shouted over the noise, “Come here often?”

There was a point where she was laughing at something he said, tucking a strand of icy hair behind her ear. There was a point where he was buying her another drink. There was a point where they were chest to chest in the suffocating heat of the dance floor.

And then they were kissing. Sokka’s limping brain seemed to catch up with his body then. She was kissing him too softly, hands barely resting on his shoulders. She tasted like bubblegum and rum. Her waist was small under his hands.

Sokka reeled back, practically shoving her away. She gave him a ‘what the hell look’. He felt immediately bad, it wasn’t her fault. She just wasn't what he wanted. 

“Sorry,” Sokka shouted in her ear. He didn’t want to see her reaction. He pushed through the crowd until he found his friends. The strobe lights made him dizzy, but he eventually tracked down Aang by the jumping. Suki gave him a curious look, but then the song changed to one they all knew and they let it all go with the chorus. The night wore on, but as long as Sokka kept drinking, he didn’t feel a thing. 

Three months passed like the slide of the magtrain tracks. 

Sokka fell into a routine of sorts. 

They went to whatever the pick of the night was. His friends went to the floor or the holo tables or the cage, and Sokka went to the bar. After a drink or two, someone caught his eye. He approached them, or let them approach. He made it easy. He didn’t have the energy for games these days. They’d dance or drink or just get straight to it. 

In the middle of kissing them, Sokka came to the same conclusion every night. Their hands were too big or too small. His hair was too long or her hair was too short. They kissed too soft or they pushed too hard. They were too tall or too short. 

Sokka pulled away or shoved them off and left them in halls and at tables. If they chased him, he said things he didn’t mean until they wanted him to go. 

Then he went to find his friends who were having a good time without him. 

Sometimes he woke up in the morning and he couldn’t remember the face of the person he’d tried out the night before. The only feeling that stuck was guilt and maybe a little bit of self-disgust. Subconsciously, he knew that he wasn't going to find what he was looking for, but then again, what if he did? What if he found someone who made him feel like he wasn't missing out and then he didn't have to believe that the only one for him had got away already. 

His routine was disrupted some nights. There was one night where one of Toph’s old rivals wanted a rematch. Sokka’s boomerang got more use that night than it usually got in a year. There was one night where they’d run into Suki’s old friends. They’d gone on an insane gauntlet run through the nooks and crannies of Omashu and somehow ended up on the roof of the city hall. There was one night where Momo got stolen and they had to track the squirrel halfway to Ba Sing Se. They’d ‘borrowed’ Toph’s parents’ off road lev-car and rescued Momo, and about three hundred other rare animals, from a breeding scheme. 

And then there was the night Astoria re-opened. 

Sokka dug in his heels. They were on the magtrain to Omashu when Katara decided they should go check out the new Astoria.

“Why do you guys want to go back? All of its coolness will be gone since it burned.”

“Because,” Toph drew out the word, “It was the last true bar in the city, there’s no way they put it back the way it was. I wanna go talk shit about the reno.”

“And I want to see if they put up new holo tables,” chimed in Aang. 

“Besides,” said Suki, “You’ve been ruining all our other options.”

“Me?!” exclaimed Sokka. The other passengers in the car turned to stare at the group. Sokka piped down.

“Actually, you kind of have been,” said Katara. Sokka was shocked at the betrayal. 

Toph laughed, “Yeah, we can’t go back to the Blind Bandit because you messed around with the DJ’s friend and she got mad.”

“Now that I think about it,” Aang said, rubbing his chin, “We had to leave the Library because the guy you were with started throwing chairs at us.”

“That’s not _my_ fault.”

Katara grabbed him by the shoulder and looked right into his eyes. It was a tried and true tactic in their family, their dad did it all the time. The longer she looked at him, the more guilty he started to feel. 

“It kind of is, Sokka. You know better than to treat people like that.”

“Okay, okay,” he relented. Sokka did not want to be having this conversation, especially not with his sister, “We can go to Astoria and I won’t accidentally start shit.”

“Seriously Sokka, you know the shit comes to you,” Suki said plainly, “Just try not to start shit on purpose. You can start by not making out with strangers when we all know you don’t even like them.”

“Hey! I like them.”

“Oh yeah? Name one of them.”

“J-Jason? Janice? Janson?”

“Right. No drinking tonight, either.”

“This is cruel and unusual punishment.”

“You can cry about it to Janson.”

Toph snickered and Sokka kicked her gently in the shin. 

There was a line outside of Astoria as if it were any Friday night. When they got to the front, the bouncer gave them a disgruntled look, like she hoped they wouldn’t come back. Suki clapped her on the shoulder sympathetically as they walked by. 

Inside, it was packed. If Sokka hadn’t been there when it burned, he wouldn’t have known it was any different. Maybe there were less dents in the walls and maybe the ceiling wasn’t quite as stained and warped as it had been before. But in the dark and the haze and the crowd, it looked almost exactly the same. 

“Let’s check out the tables!” shouted Aang. This time Sokka went with the rest of them. It took a while to wade through the people. Aang had to put Momo up on APPA because people kept bumping his shoulders. 

The holo tables were full when they finally made it through the crowd. Aang and Katara craned their necks around to find a clear one. Then Katara went stiff. She took a small step back onto Sokka’s foot.

“Ow, Katara, what-”

And he saw them. 

It was warped deja vu. Azula was facing off against a burly man at the corner table. Ty Lee and Mai stood side by side. Zuko leaned over the table.

Sokka’s first thought was that Zuko had bulked up. His shoulders looked a bit wider and his body seemed to fit his presence better. Sokka’s second thought was that Zuko could have been in town for weeks and he wouldn’t have known.

“Why’re y’all so quiet?” said Toph. 

“Our favourite sociopaths are back,” said Suki, fluttering her fan at her face. 

“For fuck’s sake,” said Toph, “I’m wearing white shoes today.”

“I told you not to wear white shoes to the bar,” said Katara

“Yeah and I told you to kiss my ass.”

Zuko still hadn’t looked up from the table. Sokka thought about vanishing into the dance floor. He thought about running away from this thing making his chest feel tight and his throat close up. 

“I’m getting a drink,” he said, turning away. 

Suki caught him by the wrist and dragged him back, “Nope. We agreed you wouldn’t start shit.”

“Yeah, but-”

“No buts. You can be a sober dumbass tonight.”

Zuko looked up just then. Sokka’s wrist was still clutched in Suki’s hand. He waved with his other hand. There wasn’t even a spark of recognition in Zuko’s eyes. It was like he was looking into the nameless crowd. He looked back down at the table. 

“Yowch,” said Suki. Sokka whacked her on the arm and she let go of his wrist. Yowch was right. Maybe Zuko just didn’t see him.

“Can we go dance?” said Katara, looking out over the bouncing floor.

“But I want to play Azula in holo again,” insisted Aang.

“Aang, that’s reckless endangerment of Momo,” said Suki, “You’re literally asking to get hurt.”

“Okay,” relented Aang, “I won’t play her. Can we watch though? Maybe another table will open up.”

They all looked at Sokka, even Toph faced his general direction. He shrugged in performed nonchalance, “Sure. What’s the worst that could happen?”

His heart raced as they approached the table. Something was wrong. It wasn’t just that Zuko didn’t see him. It was that Zuko’s knuckles were white, hands gripping the edge of the holo table. It was that Mai and Ty Lee watched them approach with matching looks of dread. It was that Zuko didn’t look up, even when Azula greeted Aang in a saccharine voice. 

Since Sokka had been raised to deal with his problems head first, he walked right up to Zuko and tapped him on the shoulder. 

“Hey, I think I’ve decided on smackdown. I’m feeling speedy today.”

Azula resumed the game. Her opponent with the luminescent teal bolt through his nose had been backed into a corner on the table. Her victory was about to be swift and brutal. Zuko didn’t turn around. 

“Don’t.”

“I’m sorry, what was that? I couldn’t hear you,” Sokka said, leaning into his obnoxiousness. 

Zuko turned to face him, “Back off. Now.”

Sokka’s mouth snapped shut. This person looked a bit like Zuko, and sounded exactly like him. But where Zuko’s gold eyes had been full of angry energy, these were placid, nearly glazed over. There was no snarl, no bite in his words that used to make Sokka want to push back. He had the same look Azula had had when she struck Aang down in the alley; hollow. 

Sokka darted a glance to Mai and Ty Lee across the table. They looked back at him warily, like he was reaching for the scorpion tale. They hadn’t looked at all bothered six months ago when they were all shooting at each other. But then Zuko had said just he and Azula were leaving. Mai and Ty Lee didn’t go along. Whatever happened to Zuko and Azula hadn’t happened to them and they looked like they had been walking on eggshells all night. 

Zuko went back to watching the holo, gripping the table like a lifeline. 

“Okay,” said Sokka, “Fine. Backing off.”

He slid down the table next to Suki. They traded an uneasy look. Sokka had a feeling being drunk wouldn’t have helped him tonight. 

Azula finished the round. Her opponent dropped the controller angrily on the table and stormed away. Or he tried to. The snap of the bolt whip split the air. It wrapped around the guy’s neck. He collapsed with a thud, barely audible over the music. A girl at the next holo table screamed.

“Try me, braids, see what happens,” Azula said, without turning her head to Katara who’d drawn her cold plasma gun. The girl who’d screamed ran to help the guy. He was unresponsive. Azula waved her whip and it unwound from his neck. Sokka drew his ion boomerang

“Why’d you do that?” said Aang, looking horrified at the guy on the ground, “You won.”

“He thought he could beat me. He needed to learn.”

Abruptly, Zuko pushed back from the table and walked away. Sokka watched him shoulder his way out the front entrance. Zuko never left his sister unsupervised on purpose, especially when things started to escalate. What was going on with them?

“You didn’t have to electrocute him!” exclaimed Suki. Azula shrugged as if it were no consequence to her. A group of players from the table where the girl had screamed approached. Their antigrav slingers were held in meaty fists. Sokka hated antigrav. It made him nauseous. 

“HEY, WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?” shouted the one in the front with the blue hair.

“Aang,” Sokka called across the table, “Let’s try out that open holo table.”

Aang nodded eagerly and grabbed Katara’s arm to head for the other table. One of the women in a leather vest blocked his way, “Not so fast, shortstop. Your little friend has some answering to do.”

“But we don’t know her,” insisted Katara.

“Now you’re just hurting my feelings, Kat,” drawled Azula. Sokka would have liked for her to stop paying such close attention. The woman cocked her head at Katara like she caught her in a lie.

“I just bought these shoes…” Toph lamented as she engaged her exoskeleton. Sokka didn’t know what she was complaining about, her shoes became safely encased in about six inches of osmium.

Ten minute later, Sokka was almost glad to see the blinding white lights of the Pol-Bots when they finally raided Astoria. He was about one more antigrav hit from leaving his guts on the floor.

The last ten minutes had been a blur of the fluorescence of Suki’s fan, the hot red of Mai’s blades, and the blue beam of his boomerang. He had snapped one antigrav slinger, two tibias, six humeri, and one very unfortunate collarbone. It was a good night for his ratio, probably because he wasn’t shitfaced. It was a bad night for his stomach. Apparently antigrav slingers were the next big trend in non-lethal sidearms. Everyone seemed to have one tonight. Sokka was pretty sure he had a concussion from hitting the ceiling, then the floor, then a support beam, then the wall. While Astoria looked mostly the same, it was definitely made out of sturdier stuff. 

Sokka landed on his feet when the antigrav wore off. He couldn’t remember who’d got him, but they had probably run out of range in a bid to get away from the Pol-Bots swarming the bar. The antigrav turned into regular old gravity. Although, speaking of Pol-Bots, he should get around to the running part. 

He whipped his head side to side. The blinding lights from the Pol-Bots turned everything into a hyperreal horror show. He couldn’t see anything but the faces of terrified strangers. He started moving for the back alley door, but then Pol-Bots started streaming in from that entrance too with their uncanny smooth strides. 

Shit. 

Maybe he could get behind the bar and wait it out. The Pol-Bots were rumoured to have radar and thermal sensors, but if he could get into the mini-fridge, it might work. 

He changed trajectory, breaking into a sprint. He leapt onto a stool, onto the bartop and-

Something lodged into his shoulder blade, just under his boomerang sleeve. The pain was instantaneous. A sting spread from his shoulder until it felt like his blood turned to acid. He lost control of his limbs, falling backwards off the counter. Hitting the floor didn’t feel too nice either. 

Cold metal clamped around his wrist. The awful white grimacing face of a Pol-Bot swam in his vision. He couldn’t move his legs, it was like the pain was eating him from the inside out. He couldn't even scream.

He saw a pulse of blue out of the corner of his eye. There was a swing of dark hair and a splash somewhere behind Sokka’s head. Katara. He wanted to yell at her to run and keep everyone safe. But even if he could make his jaw cooperate, they had a no man left behind policy. She wouldn't leave him and he wouldn't have left her. The thing dragging him stuttered to a stop. Sokka tried to crane his neck to see what had stopped it. Then there was a cracking noise and he was dragged over the shards of cold plasma. Of course the Pol-bots wouldn’t be chill and take a hit. 

There was a yelp somewhere beside him and a scuffle of feet. Then Sokka got dragged by Katara’s prone form on the ground. He tried to pull at his wrist, but the pain seared until his vision went spotty. The Pol-Bot clasping her wrist started moving too.

They could not get arrested again. 

The first time, Katara had lost her magtrain ticket and the collector just happened to come by at the moment she was searching her pockets. Sokka had hid his ticket so he could go wherever they were taking her. The second time, Aang and Katara had been running stolen parts for Jet. Sokka took the fall for Aang because he didn’t have parents to help him out. Not that his dad was particularly happy about it.

This would be the third time. His dad had threatened to send them to their grandmother’s if they got arrested again. She lived way in the south, they wouldn’t be able to afford coming back to Omashu more than once a year. 

Sokka did not want to live with gran, but he also didn’t want to go to jail. It just wasn’t for him. 

There wasn’t much he could do about it now, though. He and Katara were dragged unceremoniously out into the street. Strangely enough, Sokka wasn’t comforted by the amount of people who were also being dragged towards the Pol-Bot collection transporters. The feeling of concrete dragging against his exposed lower back was the cherry on top of the dumpster fire. 

A smell like burning plastic filled Sokka’s nostrils. The dragging stopped. The Pol-Bot crashed to the ground beside Sokka. He couldn’t turn his head so he had to stare into its soldered eyes. He didn't understand what happened. It felt like he was watching everything passively, like he was outside his body. There was a gaping hole through the centre of its chest plate. It was a perfectly circular hole, like it had been burned out.

Through the hole, Sokka saw a black combat boot with laces double knotted at the top. A fireball flew past his eyesight in between him and the Pol-Bot. It was deep red, nearly purple, and hot enough to singe his eyebrows off. The pressure on his wrist released and he rolled onto his back. 

Zuko stood over him silhouetted in the neon purple of the sign above Astoria and the glowing yellow of the streetlight. His black canvas jacket hung to his knees and his hair fell over his glaring eyes like strokes of charcoal. His hands were full of fire. Man, he was incredible, Sokka thought deliriously. Zuko raised his two thermal blasters to face something Sokka couldn’t see from this angle. The deep red of the thermal blasts flew in the air above him. Sokka thought he heard the crashing of more Pol-Bots onto the cluttered street. 

Toph landed beside Zuko, exoskeleton cushioning the impact of her descent. Toph hated flying because she said it messed with the assisted vision function. Sokka supposed if she had to pick a time to break it out, now was as good as any.

“Sorry, Socks. I’ll getcha on the next one,” she called through the speaker on her suit. She shot a few ray bursts from her wrist which bathed the street in green flashes. Sokka was surprised there were any Pol-Bots left with the way Zuko was going. Toph scooped Katara into her arms. She ripped off the cuff attachment from the Pol-Bot she’d incinerated. Katara’s eyes rolled in their sockets as Toph took off. The hover engine on the back of the exoskeleton propelled them into the sky. 

Sokka felt the searing pain from the kindness dart moving into manageable territory. Except for the moans of other kindness dart samplers and the sharp breaths Zuko took through his nose, the street had gone quiet. It wouldn’t stay that way for long. Sokka bet there had been another Pol-Bot transporter dispatched as soon as the first one went down. 

“H-hey Z-zu,” Sokka forced his throat to make the sounds, even though his jaw seized up in the new wave of pain. He was totally gonna have to talk to Aang about how much kindness darts sucked. 

Zuko looked down at him like he’d forgotten Sokka was there. Sokka felt so cherished sometimes. 

“G-go.”

Zuko nodded tightly, seeming to know what Sokka was talking about. Sokka shut his eyes tightly, bracing for what was on the way. He couldn’t exactly tell how he’d got to having an arm slung around Zuko’s shoulder, the pain had almost knocked him out. 

Zuko started walking, supporting Sokka’s weight with an arm under his ribcage. The sleeve of his jacket rubbed the raw skin of Sokka’s back, but he barely noticed it over the sting of every small jostle of every step. Sokka’s chin drooped against his will and it was hard to focus on trying to walk. He was doing a shitty job anyway. 

Zuko pulled out his pager with his free hand and punched something in. They walked a few more steps away from Astoria. It felt like miles. 

There was a rumble on the street and for a second Sokka thought the Pol-Bot dispatch had caught up to them. He had just about resigned to his fate when Zuko’s beastly car pulled up beside them. Sokka had no idea why anyone needed such a tank of a car in a city with these narrow streets, but he didn’t complain when Zuko opened the back door and manhandled him onto the back row of seats. Zuko got in the front. The car started to move a few seconds later. 

Sokka thought about the last time he’d been looking at this particular view. That had felt a lot nicer than this. For one he hadn’t felt like he’d gone through a food processor. For another he hadn’t seen the way Zuko had looked at him tonight like he was a piece of furniture. What the fuck was this night?

Zuko leaned over from the front seat and started rifling through Sokka’s pockets.

“I-I’m not re-really in the mood, hotman,” Sokka forced out. If he had a bit more energy, and a bit more muscle control, he would have said something charming. Something to force a surprised laugh out of Zuko and make everything better. Although, Sokka was beginning to think it would take a bit more than a cheesy come-on to fix this. 

“I’m getting your pager so Toph doesn’t blow me up to save you. Aang's drone has been tracking us for the last five minutes,” Zuko said flatly. He fished the thin plastic square from Sokka’s pocket and held it out. “Open it.” 

Sokka clumsily knocked the back of his hand against the edge of the pager. The screen lit up blue and Zuko took it with him into the front seat. It was far away in a car this big. 

Sokka stared up at the ceiling for a bit, but that got boring. He tried to look out the window for a bit, but twisting his neck like that was still a bit much for his achy muscles. 

“Hey Zuko?”

“What.”

“Where are we going?”

“Your house. Katara just gave me the coordinates.”

“Oh.”

Sokka stared up at the ceiling a bit more. The orange light faded to black as they crossed the bridge out of the city. Only certain people had permits to use the bridge. Must be one of the perks of being the son of a pseudo-dictator. 

“Hey Zuko?”

“What now?”

“What happened to you?”

For a minute the only sound in the car was the low rumbling of the engine. Sokka couldn’t see the ceiling at all anymore. The longer he looked into the nothingness, the more he started to see the looming grimace of the Pol-Bot. 

“I went home,” Zuko finally said. 

“You should stop doing that. Seemed shitty,” Sokka mumbled. The exhaustion of the bar fight and the wear of the kindness dart pulled his eyelids down. 

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” said Zuko quietly. Sokka careened into oblivion. 

He woke to Katara shaking his shoulder.

“Get up, you oaf.”

Sokka pushed himself to sit. Katara and Aang stood outside the walls of the compound. It must have been a three hour drive without the magtrain speed. Sokka had slept through it all. 

“Hey, thanks man,” he said to the front seat. 

Zuko didn’t turn around, “Don’t mention it... Really. Don’t.”

Sokka figured that was the best he was going to get. He swung his legs out and wobbled to his feet. His muscles didn’t seize which was good, but they still ached like a son of a bitch. The door closed automatically and the car drove off like distant thunder. 

Sokka didn’t watch Zuko leave. Instead, he turned to Katara. She looked liked she'd been in a fight with a colony of trash pandas and lost. Sokka bet he looked worse.

“If dad asks, we both fell down the stairs.”


	8. Wildfire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko hates making his father proud, but sometimes it happens by accident.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am going to use the word henchpeople unironically, but I have decided it fits with the vibe. Come fight me in the comments on this language bastardization if you need to.
> 
> TW: death and graphic violence

Zuko was having a spectacularly awful day. 

Azula was out with Mai and Ty Lee at some wilderness retreat just outside the city. Zuko figured she couldn’t get up to too much trouble at the retreat. He hastily uninvited himself. He probably could use some relaxation, but chaperoning Azula anywhere was a high stress environment. He was supposed to be getting information on the dissident revolt in the south for his father and picking up Azula’s car from the mechanic. He had procrastinated both of those things longer than he should. 

He had a headache.

Ozai yelled at Zuko for thirty minutes about the leaked footage from Astoria. It was a shorter barrage than usual, but Ozai had an afternoon meeting to get to. While Ozai described the ways in which Zuko was an embarrassment, Zuko thought about what Sokka had said about his game with Katara. It made sense that he and Azual weren’t as similar as they used to be. They didn’t have as many common touch points for their character building experiences as they got older. Ozai reserved all the character building for him.

It had been a week since the most recent incident at Astoria. When he’d come back in the small hours of the morning alone, his uncle was just heading off for work. Iroh traded tea all over the country and so he was rarely home for long. Zuko historically had terrible timing. Iroh had winked and nudged Zuko about bringing his special someone around sometime in the daylight. Zuko thought about telling him his special someone would be risking their life to be seen with him. Iroh probably had a speech prepared about living truthfully or something, so Zuko kept his mouth shut.

The footage from his run-in with the Pol-Bots had circulated around for a few days. It was difficult for his father’s staff to erase it from the webwork once it was out. The video was shakily taken from an upper floor of one of the other hotels on the street. It showed a figure in black burning holes through twenty five Pol-Bots in a minute and ten seconds, then someone in an expensive exoskeleton finished off the rest. The video cut out at the point when the figure in black dragged one of the people on the ground to their feet. 

Ozai ended the call with his signature, “If you fail there will be consequences.”

Zuko was getting pretty tired of consequences. 

There had been a lot of consequences over the last six months. Zuko’s palms itched for his blasters just to think of it. They wouldn’t make anything better, but he wouldn’t feel so useless.

A few things had been made clear to Zuko during his trip home. Firstly, Ozai told Zuko in no uncertain terms that Azula was his heir and Zuko was to be her principal advisor. At first, Zuko had to keep from bursting out laughing. How was he at all qualified to run Ozai’s political machine? He was barely able to run his own life. It was better than being the heir though. God, Zuko used to want that so badly. Not anymore. That kind of power could make a person lose themselves. Ozai had seen Zuko’s lips twitch and ordered Zuko to his room until he came around on the issue. It took only about thirty hours without food until he agreed to his father’s terms. He really thought he was going to outgrow Ozai's particular parenting style when he got older, but Ozai showed no sign of relenting. 

The second thing that was made clear was the matter of lineage. Zuko already knew that who he associated with was important. He already knew that his father had an obsession with bloodlines and those he deemed worthy and those he did not. He already knew what he’d done with Sokka was stupid, reckless. 

What he didn’t know was that his father had already made plans. He expected Zuko to marry Mai. Not date, not be publicly seen with. Marry. It could happen as soon as Ozai made the final call, as soon as he thought Zuko was too unreliable to lead the life he was supposed to. It hung like an ax over Zuko’s neck. One more step out of line, and he’d let it fall. 

Zuko hadn’t bothered fighting that decree. He realized it was pointless. He would have starved to death in his room if he went through the whole ‘join us when you’re ready’ process. He would never be ready to give up his identity. Even the things he thought had been his, had been secret, could be forced into the shape Ozai saw fit. Nothing he did mattered except destroying their family’s enemies. Nothing mattered except doing his duty. That was the only way he could be allowed to exist. Zuko had nearly been crushed under that weight while he was home. It pressed and pressed until he couldn't hold it anymore.

He had come back to Omashu completely hollow. He was quicker on his feet and a bit stronger from the hours of training he and Azula were forced into. But he realized feeling strong didn’t matter if everything he had to himself was stripped away. 

At least he had Iroh’s uptown apartment to himself today. After his talk with his father, he went to drink Iroh’s most expensive tea and stare out over Omashu. The only deep thought he came up with was that all tea tasted like leaves. 

His pager beeped on the coffee table. 

It was an unknown number. Maybe a staffer to deliver some instructions. Zuko put down his tea and launched the call up into the air. When it connected, he wished he’d left it minimized on the pager. 

A masked figure filled the image projected in front of Zuko. It was a painted red metal mask with narrow slits for eyes. There was no mouth or any other features.

“Zuko, son of Ozai,” the voice was garbled and pitched high by a frequency scrambler, “Come to King Bumi’s tomb at twenty two hundred hours, alone, or they die.”

Zuko let his face slide into practiced neutrality. He wondered how the girls had got caught. People had tried to capture Mai and Ty Lee before. It usually ended with knives lodged in throats and caved in skulls. Maybe Azula was pranking him. She’d find it hilarious if he’d gone to bargain for their freedom. She had a strong sense of irony. King Bumi's tomb was definitely a message. Zuko had always thought it was weird to have a monument to the last tyrant. In the concrete tomb was a standing sarcophagus with the likeness of a frowning king carved in ominous right angles.

The masked figure stepped aside. The camera took a moment to focus. The lighting was bad and the picture was grainy, but Zuko saw it clear enough. 

Two figures were blindfolded and bound in tensor cables to the base of King Bumi’s tomb. One of the people was wearing a stained orange shirt and his hands were bound at his front. His head was familiarly bald and his wrist was stripped to bare skin. The other person was bound to the opposite side of the tomb. His light blue long sleeve henley was flecked with blood. His hands were tied behind his back and his hair had come loose, hanging past his jaw. It had grown in the last six months. Zuko hadn't noticed back at Astoria.

He had only a split second to control his urge to scream at the projection, to demand they be released. He wanted to, and he almost did, but he realized that was how he was supposed to act. He was known for having a short fuse, for having an easily bruised pride. If Iroh had taught him anything, it was to know what you were supposed to do and find a way around it. He couldn’t let them know they’d caught him off guard. Azula was so much better at this stuff than him, couldn’t they steal her friends and threaten her instead? 

The masked figure stepped back in front of the camera. Zuko shrugged exaggeratedly. 

“I don’t know them, I think I’ll stay home.”

For a moment, the masked figure hesitated, like they were sure they’d got it right. In the background, Sokka seemed to be furiously picking at the tensor cables around his wrists. Offscreen, an electric shock darted across the room and connected with Sokka’s shoulder. He went limp against the cables. There was more than just this one masked person in the room.

“I will kill them at twenty two hundred hours if you do not show,” said the mask, “I’ll release the footage and say the son of Ozai let it happen.”

Zuko ended the call before the mask said another word. 

His hands shook at his sides and his breathing started to speed up.

How had they known to take Sokka? Other than the Pol-Bot raid, they hadn’t been seen together for half a year, and even then they weren’t exactly touchy-feely. Zuko had watched the raid footage over and over, their faces were never visible. Beyond that he knew Ozai would be keeping close tabs on him after sharing his plans. Zuko had stayed as cold and distant to Sokka as Ozai’d raised him to be. What mistake had he made? What had given him away?

The thought of being responsible for Sokka’s death after acting so isolated made Zuko’s stomach turn. He pulled and pulled on his thoughts to keep them away from the thought of Sokka being gone forever. He wouldn’t be able to think at all if he descended into a full on breakdown. An errant tear slipped out of his scarred eye and tracked down his ruined cheek. He brushed it away angrily. He didn't even know Sokka's last name and he was falling apart. 

Zuko started pacing. He could show up and find out what they wanted. The way the masked person had called him ‘son of Ozai’ suggested it wasn’t about him at all. Were they from the southern revolt? Were they after Ozai’s favour? Would they really kill Sokka and Aang?

Zuko swiped his pager off the table and found Mai’s contact. He hesitated, finger hovering over her name. Someone had to have tipped them off about Aang’s controller. Picking Sokka out of all the people Zuko had interacted with was more of a long shot, but they hadn’t exactly been careful. But Aang’s controller looked like any other cuff bracelet a kid might wear to the bar. They had to know to take that off. Someone had to tell them. He hadn’t talked to Mai about Ozai's whole arranged situation, he’d barely been civil to her since he got back. Maybe she was mad, maybe she was trying to remove him before she was stuck in something she didn’t want either. He couldn't narrow it down, he couldn't tell who'd hurt him this time.

He shoved his pager in his pocket. It was 9pm. If he was going to move, he had to do it now. 

He put on a jacket with a deep blue hood, secured his blasters, and rushed out into the night. 

When he arrived at the tomb of King Bumi in the centre of the tallest part of Omashu, he didn’t go through the front door. Instead, he scaled a pipe on the side of the peaked building to the second storey window. He waited, making sure he didn’t cast a shadow on the floor inside. 

King Bumi’s tomb was a cavernous room. It was designed to force attention to the goliath sarcophagus in the centre of the room. There were no chairs or displays or other objects in the room, just still air and stone. Green uplighting illuminated the tall stone walls, shining up through the glass ceiling. Zuko was grateful for that tonight, he could see nearly everything in the tomb. 

He faced the side of the tomb where Sokka lay slumped against the tensor cables binding his chest. Zuko’s heart tugged painfully at the sight, but he forced himself to keep looking. He saw the person in the red mask chatting to someone he didn’t recognize. The red mask person was tall and wide, and they moved like a trained fighter. Other than that there were seven others in the room wearing black masks. 

As Zuko’s eyes adjusted, he made out some surprising weapons. One held a plasma gun with a barrel large enough to coat an entire person in one shot. One held an antigrav slinger in one hand and a single handed laser bow in the other. The others held top of the line rapid ray blasters. They had resources, whoever they were. 

A tiny movement caught Zuko’s eye. Only because he was looking down from above could he see it. While Sokka’s body awkwardly hung over the tensor cables, his hands were working quickly. He had unravelled the series of knots and worked to free his hands altogether. Zuko couldn’t guess what he was going to do. There was nowhere for him to run. 

Sokka’s head bobbed up, just a bit. Now it seemed like he was just looking at his shoes instead of in full unconsciousness. He paused, waited until one of the henchperson walked by, then darted his hands down to his feet, making quick work of the knots there too. In no time both his limbs were free and only the cables over his torso held him in place. 

He waited again. Zuko thought about bursting in right then, but it might hurt Sokka more than help right now. Another henchperson walked by. Zuko found a way to help. He tapped on the glass to draw their attention up and leaned out of the way to not be seen. A grunt followed and he peered back through to see what went down. 

Sokka clung to the back of the henchperson and tried to wrestle their plasma gun out of their hands. It went off, encasing half the sarcophagus in goo which started hissing steam and eating away at the stone. 

The henchperson twisted, managing to throw Sokka off. He rolled a couple times before coming to a stop. Zuko could see him smiling from his perch. The henchperson put a foot on Sokka’s chest to keep him from getting up. He looked over at the red-masked person for permission. The mask nodded once. The other henchpeople gathered around to watch. The henchperson levelled the barrel of the plasma gun at Sokka’s head. 

Zuko’s vision went red. 

They were going to kill Sokka before Zuko even showed up. They were going back on their deal. Well then, it was time he showed up. 

He set his blasters to full and crashed through the window. 

The henchperson with the plasma gun was dead before Zuko hit the ground. 

He barely felt the impact on his ankles, already rolling and facing the next threat. Rage made him clumsy, but it also simplified the internal debate before he hurt someone. There was no question in his mind that he needed to protect himself and the people he loved. These people knew to grab Sokka to control him and they couldn’t be allowed to live. He took down the next one closest to Sokka. The smell of burning flesh filled the room.

Someone launched an antigrav wave at him and he rode it to the glass ceiling. He shot deep purple thermal blasts down at the five remaining henchpeople. The thermal blasts that didn't hit burned holes into the stones. A ray blast shattered the glass just to his left and he skittered out of the way. He traced the shot back to one of the henchpeople in the corner. He dodged another volley and shot back. The thermal blast ate through their bullet-proof vest. Who used bullets anymore?

From his spot, he noticed that the tensor cables around the sarcophagus had been dissolved by the acid plasma. Aang pulled loose and stumbled away from the line of fire. The masked figure didn’t notice, watching Zuko. Aang crept along the shadow of the sarcophagus and carefully started rifling through the duffel bag in the back corner of the room.

Another antigrav wave caught Zuko offguard. He leapt to the wall as it hit and used the friction of his jacket against the stone to slow his fall. When he hit the ground, he used his momentum to roll up to the last three henchpeople who were clustered together in the corner. 

One of them tried to sling another antigrav wave and shoot a ray blast at the same time, but Zuko dropped to the ground and was back on his feet in an instant. The training he’d done with Azula back home was paying off, even if he had a multitude more scars from it. He delivered three quick thermal blasts as he rose. The henchpeople wore matching looks of shock as the thermal blasts carried clear through their rib cages. 

Zuko didn’t wait for their bodies to fall, already turning to where Sokka had been. But now he was wrestling in the grip of the masked person, red laser blade against his neck. A trickle of blood ran out of Sokka’s nose, but other than that, he appeared mostly unharmed. 

“Take off the hood, you don’t need to play hero anymore,” said the masked person. The voice modulator wasn’t on anymore. The voice was low and gravely, a man’s voice. Zuko recognized it, but he couldn’t place from where. “Now, Zuko.”

The man dug the knife into Sokka’s neck and Sokka winced. The laser edge created a small line of blistering skin over his neck. Zuko placed the voice in that instant. The scolding tone, the condescension. He had heard it at home when his father was too busy to punish Zuko himself. 

Zuko lifted his blue hood back, “That better, Zhou?”

He looked at the mask, he couldn’t bring himself to meet Sokka’s eyes. 

“Ah, I see your sister hasn’t taken all the smarts just yet,” drawled Zhou.

“What do you want? Why the spectacle? I don’t have anything to offer you.”

“I think you do. Call your father or your plaything dies,” Zhou demanded.

Zuko resisted the urge to roll his eyes, why did everyone keep calling Sokka his plaything? If anything it was the other way around. 

“What should I tell dear old dad? Help, I’m being blackmailed?”

“What? Of course not. Tell him you want to pass your advisorship onto me, effective immediately.”

Zuko laughed, “You’ve got to be _kidding_ me.”

“I- No I’m serious. Make the call or he dies,” to cement his words, he dug the blade a little closer to Sokka’s skin. Sokka hissed in pain, but he didn’t say anything. 

“You realize you could have just asked? I don’t want it, I would have given it to you for a bit of freedom,” Zuko said. 

“I don’t care, make the call.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Zuko saw something so insane he thought he was hallucinating for a second. A brown and white drone floated through the gap in the glass ceiling and descended soundlessly. On top of the drone sat a white rodent covered in metal like a little suit of armor. Zuko quickly busied himself pulling out his pager. 

“Hey Sokka, you remember that night you taught me to dance?” he said without looking up from his pager.

“Yeah,” grunted Sokka. 

“The thing that happened after, in the alley, we should do that again,” Zuko found the contact he was looking for and hit dial. 

Sokka’s eyes narrowed, as if he was sorting through the memory. Then his eyes went wide in understanding.

“When?” said Sokka, going still in Zhou’s grip. 

“Now.”

A kindness dart hit Zhou on the back of the neck. Sokka twisted Zhou’s arm with the laser blade away from his neck and got out from under him as he fell. The impact of the metal mask on the stone made an echoing clang through the room. 

Sokka and Zuko stared at each other. Well Sokka stared at Zuko and Zuko stared at the ground.

Aang came pelting around the corner of the monument, “Are you guys okay?”

“Yeah,” Sokka said. He tentatively touched his neck and winced when his fingers brushed the burn, “Just a little burnt.”

“Aang,” said Zuko, “Zhou said something about a recording, can you find any cameras?”

Aang nodded and hit a few buttons on his newfound controller. A blue scanning beam emerged from the drone and it started sweeping the walls floor to ceiling. Tinny distant yelling returned Zuko’s focus to his pager. He brought it up to face level and cut off the tirade mid-sentence.

“Katara, hey, I’ve got Sokka and Aang. They’re fine.”

“Where the HELL are you? We’ve been looking for HOURs-”

“Here, I’ll pass you to Sokka,” Zuko cut her off again. He tossed the pager to Sokka who caught it easily.

“Yeah, I’m fine... no I swear... don’t tell dad!”

Zuko wandered over to Aang who was watching a tiny monitor on his wrist controller.

“Anything?”

Aang nodded, “There are two standard DS2390’s attached to the walls,” he lifted his wrist for Zuko to see, “They aren’t streaming, just recording.”

Zuko bit the inside of his cheek, “He was gonna keep the footage to try to control me for a long time.”

“Thanks for coming to get us,” chirped Aang. 

Zuko shifted uncomfortably on his feet. It was hard to keep his eyes from drifting to the bodies strewn about the room.

“No problem.”

He checked back at the monitor for reference, then sent two fireballs towards those spots. They impacted on the stone with a whooshing noise. Aang sent the drone to scan again and the cameras didn't come up again. 

“You can look through here if you want,” Aang nudged a black duffle bag at his feet, “DS2390’s aren’t long range.”

Zuko found the recording base easily. It was in the front pocket of the bag. He smashed the thin black metal square on the stone floor until the circuitry lay scattered around him. 

“I think Zhou might need another dose of the good stuff,” Sokka said, coming over to join them. Zuko looked over. Zhou was tied nearly head to toe in tensor cables, groaning quietly.

“On it,” said Aang. Before the drone made it across the room, there was a huge cracking noise. The acid from the first plasma shot had eaten its way through the base of King Bumi's sarcophagus. Stone ground against stone and the whole thing toppled in slow motion. It hit the floor and cracked into blocks with a thunderous boom.

"At least you can save your darts," said Sokka, peering through the settling dust. He was right. Zhou wouldn't be getting up from the impact of several tons of stone any time soon. The room turned an eery haze of green as the uplights illuminated the dust.

Zuko got to his feet and took his pager from Sokka. He didn't want to check to see if Zhou was really dead, it might be the thing that pushed him over the edge of functioning. Besides, he had to make one more call. He walked a bit into the entrance hall away from the dust and hit dial.

It connected after two rings. 

“Zuko, what is it? I’m busy,” snapped Ozai. Zuko took a breath through his teeth before speaking.

“Zhou has challenged your authority. I took care of it. Permanently. What do you want me to do with him?”

Ozai’s brows drew down, it was the first sign of his anger beginning to stew below the surface. Zuko was glad to be handling this over the pager. 

“I’ll send a team to collect him, pass on the coordinates,” he instructed.

“There’s a bit of a mess,” said Zuko cautiously. 

“They’ll handle it,” said Ozai, “Get off the scene and report back in the morning.”

Zuko hung up and took a few long and slow breaths. Those were the types of conversations he had to look forward to for the rest of his life. God, he didn’t recognize himself. 

Back in the main room, Sokka had dragged all the corpses into one pile.

“Sokka, don’t-” Zuko said. Sokka looked up from tossing the last person on the top. That's what they were. Maybe they had been Zhou's henchpeople and out to hurt Zuko, but they were still people. Their lives were still cut short by his hand. 

“What? We gotta get rid of the evidence, right?” Sokka said, brushing off his hands on his pants.

Zuko didn’t know how to react to that. 

“I just…” how did a person put into words the conflict of guilt and shame and gladness. 

Sokka came over and leaned an elbow on Zuko’s shoulder, “So you killed some people, they were going to kill you back. It happens.”

“Have you killed anyone?”

“Well, no, but you really did us a solid so I’m trying not to have full-on freak out right now. Just,” Sokka made an explosion gesture with his hands, “and let’s get out of here.”

Zuko set his blasters to the mid-range. He fired six shots at different scraps of clothing. They caught. He turned away and Sokka’s elbow fell from his shoulder. 

“My car’s out back.”

They passed the remains of King Bumi's sarcophagus. An intact piece of stone glared disapprovingly at Zuko from only one severe carved eye. Zuko looked away. Aang brought the duffel bag and they went out the back emergency exit after Aang disabled the alarm. Zuko put his hood up to cover his face on the short walk to the car. He got in the front, Sokka and Aang got in the back.

“Where can we go?” asked Aang. “They picked us, well Sokka really, up at the magtrain station.”

Zuko shuddered to picture the masked people stealing them in such a public place. He could imagine Katara, Toph, and Suki tearing the city apart to find them.

“We’ll go to my uncle’s until we get the all clear. It has a lot more security than most banks.”

“Why does your uncle need security? Is it a rich person thing?” Sokka asked.

Zuko laughed, surprising himself, “It’s probably a rich person thing, but my uncle collects rare tea blends. It’s apparently worth a lot to him so he’s got the place locked up tight. You guys will be fine there until they clean everything up.”

“Who’s they?” Sokka asked. Zuko frowned, he figured Sokka already knew the answer and just wanted to hear him say it.

“My father, and his people.”

“Ozai, right?” said Aang. Zuko and Sokka turned to stare at Aang who shrugged, “What? I read the blogs, I stay informed.”

The car wound its way across the peak of Omashu. Not many other vehicles were on or above the roads at this time. They reached the hulking building where Iroh lived. A section of the road lifted as Zuko’s car approached, revealing the hidden entrance to the underground garage. Green track lighting shone up as the car moved through the garage to its spot. It pulled in and lowered to the ground onto its landing gear. The car went quiet.

“Okay,” Zuko said after a moment, “If anyone gets in the elevator, just stare at your shoes until they leave.”

“Why?” asked Sokka.

Zuko opened his door, “You guys look a little rough, they’ll be curious.”

Luckily, no one got in the elevator after them. It was dim enough in the sleekly designed elevator that they might have got away with it anyway. Zuko scanned his key embedded in his wrist to allow the elevator to go to the top floor.

Aang’s drone hovered just over his shoulder. The rodent climbed from the makeshift basket attached to the drone onto Aang’s shoulder. It chittered in his ear and Aang giggled.

“Is that a…?” Zuko searched for the right word.

“Squirrel?” Sokka said, “Yeah.”

“Their name is Momo,” Aang said, “Do you want to pet them?”

Zuko looked into its little squirrely face. Its eyes were blood red and full of spite. It chittered at him, revealing long white teeth. 

“No thanks.”

It took twenty five seconds to go three hundred floors. 

When they got in, Aang exclaimed about what a nice place his uncle had and what a cool view and hey he could almost see the compound from here. Sokka just looked around curiously and took off his shoes at the door. 

“Do you have a shower?” he asked, blue and yellow light from the city running over him like flowing water, “The blood’s getting all crusty and stuff.”

Zuko had a hard time getting his brain to produce words. Sokka looked so beautiful, even as wrecked as he was. Zuko didn't think he was going to see him again when he went home. Then he thought he was going to lose him in a permanent kind of way. It felt surreal to look at him in Iroh's front hall.

“Y-yeah. Just, uh, this way,” Zuko said, turning down the hall towards the washroom. 

He felt a strange embarrassment at the size of the washroom with a bath and a shower room and a sauna. But there was no point making excuses. 

“Do you want clothes?” he asked, looking at his sock feet.

“Uh, yeah, thanks,” said Sokka. He walked up to the shower room and slid a glance over to Zuko, “I’d invite you in, but I’ve got blood under my fingernails. This is more of an industrial operation.”

Zuko ducked his head and made a hasty retreat. 

He showed Aang to the guest room which had an ensuite. Aang chatted about how fancy everything was and asked if Zuko had any food. Zuko left him to get cleaned up and ordered three meals from the kitchen unit. He dug out some comfortable clothes he thought might fit Sokka and Aang and put them outside their shower rooms. He collected the meals when the kitchen unit finished preparing them. He got changed and put away his blasters.

And then he didn’t have anything else to do. He sat down in Iroh’s sitting room next to the kitchen with his food. The thoughts swirled into a hurricane in his head.

He was supposed to keep Sokka at a distance. This is what happened when he failed, people got hurt, people died. In the heat of the moment at the tomb when Sokka was about to die, Zuko had thought he was protecting someone he loved. But it couldn't be love if it was this terrible. If either of them had a chance to make it out of the year in one piece, he had to leave this behind him. It was the only way to keep Sokka safe. Besides, every time he slipped up, he brought a figurative imprisonment closer to both him and Mai. 

Zuko felt so young and a thousand years old at the same times. 

He finished his meal, returned the plate to the kitchen unit, and went to his room down the hall. It was the furthest away from the other rooms on the opposite side of the penthouse. He liked the quiet away from Iroh’s muttering to himself and Azula’s cackling on calls to Ty Lee. Zuko closed the door behind him softly. 

Looking over his room, he felt like a different person he had been that morning. The red track lighting under his bed and dresser made the whole room seem bathed in blood. He turned the track-lights off with shaking hands. He sat down on the edge of his bed and stared over at his thermal blaster box. It felt strange to look at them, inanimate as they were, and know what he’d done with them. In the eyes of his father and his sister, he’d probably fulfilled his potential tonight. He’d protected his family without question or hesitation. But he hadn’t been protecting them. He’d barely been protecting himself. 

God this was so fucked up. If Sokka was actually close to him, permanently close, he’d be easier to protect and he’d carry the force of Zuko’s name. If Sokka was actually a stranger, he wouldn’t be in danger by association. But this in-between state left him endangered and exposed. Zuko hadn’t distanced Sokka enough and Zhou had forced his hand to kill.

Horrible as it was, if he had more time to think about it and move cautiously, Zuko was pretty sure the end result would be the same. People had been poking for weaknesses in their family for as long as his grandfather came to power. Jet had been trying to do the same to Azula, but Jet had failed. Zhou had succeeded, and for that he and everyone in that room would have been permanent thorns in his side. No one with that kind of sway over Zuko could be let free. If he hadn't done it, his father would have done it, or at least ordered it done.

Zuko hated making the same choices as his father. Here he was, playing judge, jury, and executioner just the same. Would he be able to live with himself after this? Was this the start of the slippery slope to becoming his father?

He rubbed a hand over his face and lay back on his bed. His window tint was set to translucent, letting a bit of yellow light in from the city. It formed blobs of soft yellow and dark shadow over his ceiling. Sleep was going to be hard to pin down tonight.

There was a knock at his door. Zuko didn’t bother moving from his spot staring at the ceiling.

“Come in.”

His door cracked open and Sokka’s head peeked around the doorframe. 

“Hey Zuko, can I stay here? Azula’s dolls are creeping me out.”

Zuko seriously considered chucking a pillow at his head and telling him to try out the couch. He was still working though his own little game of tug of war. He hadn’t decided how he was going to deal with Sokka. But then Sokka was staring at him with his pleading blue eyes and Zuko’s backbone had been seriously worn down by this whole day. 

“Fine. But if you come into my half, you’re losing a finger.”

“Thanks dude, incoming!”

Sokka bounded over and belly flopped onto the unoccupied section of the bed. Zuko jostled with the impact. He glared up at the ceiling. The universe clearly had it out for him. 

He could feel Sokka looking at him, but he couldn’t think of anything to say. Maybe if he glared at the ceiling for long enough, he’d eventually pass out and his problems would be tomorrow’s problems. 

“I’d be so scared if I was the ceiling,’ said Sokka, “You’re giving it a real evil eye, huh?”

Zuko closed his eyes and breathed deeply. There was always the throwing pillow at head option. 

“What do you need Sokka?” he said in a cold monotone. He felt Sokka shift his whole body to face him. 

“See, I was gonna let you have some rest, recover and all that, and badger you in the morning. But if you’re gonna be that way, we’re hashing this out now,” Sokka said, a hint of anger colouring his tones. Zuko cracked his eyes open and looked at Sokka sideways.

“Hash what out?”

He was not expecting the flick Sokka delivered to his forehead. It came quickly and mercilessly. He sat up, rubbing his forehead. “What the hell?”

“No,” Sokka said firmly, sitting up to face Zuko, “You what the hell! I don’t hear from you for half a year, fine. You’re busy, whatever. But then I run into you at Astoria and you act like I’m a traffic cone. So I was like alright, he hates me for some reason, it happens, people change. But THEN you pull up like some vigilante and melt like fifty Pol-Bots,” Sokka started talking with his hands, making wild gestures, “So I’m like sweet, he must not hate me if he’s risking it all, awesome. But THEN then you’re all weird and cryptic in the car, don’t give me that look, it was cryptic even for you. And so now I’m confused as FUCK and to top it all off I get kidnapped right out of the magtrain station and Aang tries to save me and ends up kidnapped too. You show up and kill everyone, thanks by the way, and we all make a wild escape together and you take us to your place. And now you’re acting weird again. Like I don’t even know which way is up anymore!”

“I was trying to keep you safe,” Zuko said quietly, looking down at his hands. 

Sokka laughed, it was loud in the still room, “Safe? Dude, you’ve met me. Safe and me don’t get along. How would jerking me around like your own personal antigrav target keep me safe?”

“You don’t understand,” Zuko got out when Sokka paused for breath. 

Sokka scoffed, “Yeah! Clearly!”

Zuko finally looked up. Sokka had washed the blood off his face and his hair hung wet nearly brushing his shoulders. Zuko wondered if Sokka knew he liked it like that. Probably not, Zuko hadn’t told him. There was a whole lot Zuko hadn't told him.

Sokka raised his eyebrows expectantly, “This is the part where you tell me what the fuck is going on, nimwit.”

Zuko sighed and rubbed his hand over his face again. It was a bad idea. A really bad idea.

Zuko spoke before he'd fully rationalized it, “Do you know why Zhou kidnapped you?”

“I dunno, because Aang and I know you?”

“Exactly. That’s what happens to people who know me. I shouldn’t have talked to you in the first place.”

“It’s not your fault some psycho wanted to blackmail you,” said Sokka. 

“Isn’t it?” Zuko laughed self-deprecatingly, “I got put into more power while I was home. Other things too, but now I have more that people want. I can’t act careless anymore. I didn’t do a good job at keeping to myself, but I’m going to fix it, I promise. You guys will be safer away from-”

“Why’d you show up?” Sokka cut him off. Zuko didn’t understand the question.

"What do you mean?"

"Tonight, you said you didn't know us but you showed up anyway."

“Because Zhou was going to kill you and release the recording naming me responsible.”

“No, but if it was just Aang, would you have shown up yourself, or call daddy to sort it out?”

Zuko narrowed his eyes, Sokka had him pinned, “I might have called it in.”

“Okay,” said Sokka slowly, “So why did you show up when I was there?”

“Why do you want to talk about this? It’s just going to make everything worse,” Zuko felt his careful cool slipping. He knew this was a bad idea. He knew he was a bad liar. His hands twisted in his lap. He focused his eyes there. 

“Answer the question Zuko.”

“Okay, fine. I guess I care about you and I didn’t want to leave your not-dying up to chance.”

“There, was that so hard?”

“Yes.”

“You know I wouldn’t want you to die either.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“You’re welcome. So then can you drop the whole ‘I’m too cool to have feelings’ bullshit?”

“Sokka, I can’t do this with you,” Zuko forced himself to look up when he said it, “I can’t keep you close enough to keep you safe, so you have to let it go. Zhou’s not the only one out there who’ll want something from me.”

“Why can’t you keep me close?” demanded Sokka, “I’d rather be suffocated in whatever you call safety way more than nothing at all. I tried nothing at all. It fucking sucked.”

Zuko closed his eyes, “I’m going to marry Mai.”

Sokka practically gasped, “What the fuck are you talking about?! Since when are you into Mai? She was like your wingwoman, I swear.”

“I’m not even into girls,” Zuko said dryly, “But it’s what my father’s orchestrated to keep me reigned in. If I’m tied to her, I won’t be able to get into political trouble without dragging her down with me.”

“I can’t believe your dad actually made the ball and chain saying real. That’s like real old school misogyny.”

“Yeah, well Ozai rolls like that,” said Zuko, “But it doesn’t change the fact that my single days are numbered.”

Sokka mumbled something that sounded like ‘single my ass’.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

They went quiet for a moment. Zuko wanted to pace across the floor, but he also didn’t want to move an inch. He was caught in Sokka's own kind of gravity. He always found it hard to pull away when he got this close. 

“What if you married someone else instead? Would that work?” Sokka suggested haltingly. 

Zuko frowned, “What? No. Marriage is just a political partnership.”

“Well sor-ry for trying to problem solve,” Sokka said, falling back on his pillow. 

“Sokka, my problems are just going to get bigger,” Zuko raked a hand through his hair, “There isn’t one fix to get out of all this.”

“I could try to help though,” Sokka said, “I have a big brain. I’m a problem solving god.”

“Why are you insisting on putting yourself in danger?” Zuko said, exasperated. 

Sokka threw his hands up, “I literally just said! The last six months kind of sucked. All I wanted was for you to show up and for us to go back to whatever we were doing before. I want you with me more than I care about the people who’re going to come at us.”

Zuko had known on some level that Sokka was a bit insane, but this was a whole other realm. Why would anyone go through what Sokka did today and want more? 

“Really?” he asked quietly. Sokka gave him an obvious look. The burn from Zhou’s laser blade stood stark red against the smooth skin of his neck. Zuko had the horrible thought that he was glad that Zhou was dead. He shoved it away as soon as it popped up, nothing good lay down that line of thinking.

“Is it too hard to imagine that you’re worth the trouble?” Sokka leaned up on his elbow. “No, don’t answer that. The best part is that you’re here and I’m here and we’re both okay. I don’t really want to fight you about this stuff, Zuko. Most of it’s a tomorrow problem anyway.”

“What’s a right now problem?” Zuko asked, a bit curious where Sokka was going with all this. He felt bad for bringing all this on Sokka, but he was also surprised how in-stride Sokka had taken the whole evening. 

“My biggest problem right now is that I’ve been in your bed with my hair down looking like a wet dream come true for the better part of an hour and I don’t feel ravished at all. You’re not even undressing me with your eyes, do I have to do all the work here?”

Zuko laughed, startled. So _that's_ where Sokka was going with all this. “Sorry, I was distracted by the whole people trying to kill us part.”

Sokka grabbed Zuko’s free hand and started playing with his fingers, “Well get undistracted.”

Zuko decided, just for now, he’d take up Sokka’s philosophy. He was right to an extent, there were tomorrow problems and there were right now problems. Sokka started a one way thumb war while Zuko weighed his options. There was nothing he could do right now about the big things pulling him down. He could leave those for another time when Sokka wasn’t stretched out over his bed like that. In Zuko's clothes like that. God, Zuko had missed him way more than he'd ever say. 

“Alright, I’m undistracted,” Zuko said. He nudged Sokka's shoulder to get him to make room. Sokka winced and Zuko froze. 

“Let’s just… go slow, okay?” Sokka said, “I’m pretty sure my shoulder’s one sharp tug from dislocating. Maybe my ribs too. Can ribs dislocate? I don’t know, there’s a lot going on.”

Zuko laughed again, moving until he was supporting his weight on his elbows on either side of Sokka's head, “Okay, we can go slow.”

He lowered himself carefully. He tried not to rush. 

When they kissed, it felt something like tenderness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hot take: Zuko actually fell in love in chapter six and Sokka actually realized his feelings in the beginning of chapter seven, but we are working on this whole communication thing ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	9. Tomorrow This Will Be Yesterday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka is not a morning person, but he can see the appeal. 
> 
> He can see Zuko.
> 
> Zuko is the appeal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Take this fluff and run!

Sokka woke up in stages.

This first step was a big stretch. He spread his arms wide, feeling his shoulders crack satisfyingly. He also felt the back of his hand thwack into a bare chest. 

The second stage was for his eyes to fly open. He wasn’t in his room at the compound. This room was too bright, the red sun shining directly through a floor to ceiling translucent window on one wall of the room. This bed was bigger and lower than his. The duvet was way too insulated. He stuck his foot out the side to cool down a bit. 

The third stage was realizing someone else was here. His hand rested on a familiar chest. His legs were tangled with very familiar legs. A pair of gold eyes regarded him warily as if bracing for another attack. Maybe that’s why the bed was about a million degrees, there was a whole extra person in it. 

“Sorry,” Sokka croaked. By the angle of the sun and the cotton feeling in his brain, it was too early to be awake. How Zuko looked fully alert and ready to get going, Sokka had no idea. He thought about rolling over and going back to sleep

“It’s okay,” Zuko said quietly. 

Last night rushed back to Sokka. 

Getting kidnapped out of the magtrain station by a moving hover van had sucked. Watching Aang chase the hover van through the streets on APPA and proceed to get lumped in with Sokka had also sucked. Listening to Zuko say he didn’t care what happened to them had sucked the most.

Watching Zuko disguised in the blue hood of his coat kill seven people had been terrifying. He was glad the three of them made it out, and he wasn’t scared of Zuko or anything. He didn’t think Zuko would hurt him. Not that badly at least. Still, he’d never seen someone completely eliminate a fully geared up task force like that. He’d thought the destruction of the Pol-Bot squadron was as far as Zuko would go. 

He was glad they’d talked it out a bit last night. He felt a lot better knowing that Zuko didn’t hate him or blame him for any of it. The whole business with the arranged marriage was a bit of an issue, but Sokka figured they had time. Sokka wouldn’t let Zuko fall into a trap when he was around to stop it. He cared about him too much to let him go like that. 

While it was nice to know that Zuko felt the same way about him. It had been fucking great to feel it. Last night was different from the other times. It didn’t feel like scratching an itch or rushing to a finish. They’d taken the time to be deliberate. Sokka didn’t want anything more or less than going slow together. He felt Zuko’s hands on his body with reverence like he couldn’t believe Sokka was there. He felt himself kiss back with something closer to affection than force. 

Fucking casually was grand, but there was definitely something to be said for sleeping with someone who he wanted more than anyone on the planet. Someone he valued for a lot more than what they could give him. Someone he knew from where they liked his hands to go to how they liked him to say their name. Someone who knew him and tugged him closer because of it, not in spite of it. 

Afterwards, Sokka didn’t run and Zuko didn’t tell him to leave. They fell into companionable silence, then companionable sleep.

Was this what love felt like? Sokka turned to word over in his brain. Did it feel like wanting someone else to be happy in order to be happy himself? Did it feel like waking up in soft morning light and breathing a sigh of relief to see that they were okay?

“You should go back to sleep,” said Zuko quietly, “It’s still early.”

“How early?” Sokka didn’t remember where he put his pager, probably back somewhere in Azula’s creepy doll room. He didn’t have the embedded digi-clocks some people had on their wrists. They creeped him out a bit even though they’d been around forever.

Zuko squinted at the projected display above his dresser, “Six?”

“It’s literally the middle of the night,” Sokka complained, pushing the duvet off his chest to get some cooler air.

“Really, you can go back to sleep. I don’t think we can go anywhere today, anyway.”

Sokka laughed groggily, “I can’t go back to sleep now. You’re a thousand degrees man, it’s like lying in a boiler room. How can you sleep like this?”

“I’m hotman, remember,” Zuko deadpanned, “Do you want me to move over?”

Sokka used his arm already resting on Zuko’s muscled chest to drag himself closer. 

He draped half his torso over Zuko’s chest greedily and mumbled, “No, just think colder thoughts.” He propped his chin on his hands and looked up at Zuko who looked back down at him, amused. He couldn’t remember when Zuko’s scar had become just another part of this face that Sokka liked to look at so much. It must have happened sometime back before they’d burned down Astoria. 

“How’d you get so big anyway? Last I knew you were scrawny and scrappy.”

“Azula and I trained a lot at home. Ozai likes to prove that we’re self sufficient at crushing our enemies in front of his staff. It’s like family bonding time,” Zuko said wryly. 

“How much is a lot?” Sokka asked. It was kind of fun to be moved up and down with Zuko’s breathing. Zuko’s lips pulled to the side and his brow furrowed in thought.

“Most days we did three hours. If Azula beat me in the last round then I had to do four the next day. So I guess I actually did four most days.”

Sokka whistled, “No wonder you’re all buff now.”

“Did you like me better before?” Zuko asked. The earnestness in his face made Sokka’s heart twist a little bit.

Sokka thought about swatting him over the head for the stupid question, but that was a lot of work. He settled for pressing his lips to the skin below Zuko’s collar bone. 

“You’re hotman in any shape. Although, I’m definitely not complaining about the shredded body, believe me. But you can’t let your biceps get bigger than mine, okay? The dynamic will be way off then. I’ll have to get a funny hat or something to compensate.”

Zuko chuckled, glancing down at his arms resting next to Sokka’s, “No promises.”

Sokka woke up again to soft knocking. 

“Yeah?” Zuko called. Sokka was still draped over his chest and the vibration of Zuko’s voice sent a little tingle down his spine. One of Zuko’s warm hands rested on Sokka’s back, idly fiddling with his hair.

“Sorry to bug you Zuko,” said Aang through the door, “I can’t get the cooking thing to make food. It just flashes a red error code every time I push a button.”

Zuko exhaled slowly. Sokka watched a few microexpressions flit across his face. A half-second of annoyance, a half-second of resignation. He was definitely the eldest sibling. Sokka recognized the feeling. He had made that exact same face at Katara two days ago when she jammed her plasma gun.

“I’ll be up in a minute.”

“Thanks!” Aang’s footsteps retreated down the hall. 

Sokka peered at the display above the dresser. It was nearly 10:30 am. His eyes slid over to Zuko who had a thin VR base resting in his hand. He hadn’t been sleeping, he’d been cruising the webwork. Sokka considered asking Zuko if he really let him practically smother him for four and a half hours, but he figured that’d be looking a gift droid in the circuitry. 

Also, he didn’t want Zuko’s hand to get untangled from his hair. It felt nice there. 

“Were you researching how to scowl more effectively?” Sokka jibed. 

Zuko tossed the VR base onto the floor beside the bed. “No, I was doing some research on the southern dissidents.”

“I’ve heard about them a bit from my gran I think,” said Sokka, “They’re not your dad’s biggest fans.”

“They’re not,” agreed Zuko, “but the more I find out, the more they make sense. They’re not mad for nothing. They’ve been treated unfairly with taxes and geolimits. I’m having a hard time setting them up to be the bad guys. ”

“Oh my god,” Sokka said, “It would be so sexy if you became a man of the people.”

Zuko laughed, making Sokka jostle around, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Sokka pulled himself up a bit and pressed a kiss to the rough patch of Zuko’s scar under his eye.

“You need to get up though. Aang practically grew up in my family...”

“So he’s not so good with boundaries,” Zuko guessed, running his hand distractingly up and down Sokka’s back. 

“He’s probably just going to walk in to get you in like two minutes.”

That was motivation enough to get Zuko rolling out of bed and pulling on clothes. 

Sokka sprawled out properly on the bed, taking a full body stretch. “Can I borrow some underwear? Or use the launder unit?”

Zuko paused doing up his pants, “Uh, yeah. Take anything you want,” he jerked his head towards the dresser. 

Zuko pushed out into the hall and Sokka tried not to feel too pleased that Zuko trusted him with something small. 

Once he was dressed, Sokka followed his nose into the kitchen. Whatever that cooking unit thing had whipped up for Aang smelled like it would go nicely in Sokka’s belly. 

There was an unattended plate of breakfast on the counter. Sokka dug in before anyone could come to claim it. 

He heard talking from the other room. He finished the last few bites and wandered over to check it out. The sound led him to some kind of dining room with deep burgundy walls and glass tables and chairs. Aang sat on one side of the table and Zuko sat on the other. Both had a cup of tea and an empty plate in front of them. There was a call projected into the air above the table. Aang noticed him and waved him over, putting a finger to his lips. Sokka crept over to the chair beside him. 

“Are you sure?” Mai was saying on the projection. Her hair was done up in two buns and she was wrapped in a black satin robe. 

Zuko nodded, “Someone sold us out. I thought it was you.”

Mai blinked at him, “I’d never do that,” she said plainly, “You’re the only one left in this shitshow who seems to have any conscience,” Zuko flinched, but she kept talking, “If you were out of the picture, I’d still be foisted off on somebody worse. I kind of prefer the option where I don’t actually hate the person I’m stuck with. But I get it, you don’t need to share anything with me if you think I’m a suspect.”

Sokka thought that was very cool of her. She was just cool. It was really too bad she had such terrible friends. Well, except for Zuko, but objectively the jury was still out on him. 

“I believe you,” Zuko said, “I think if you wanted to kill me you wouldn’t have left a possibility of escape.”

“You’re probably right,” said Mai. She and Zuko shared a weird little moment. Neither of them were smiling, but Sokka could see a light dance in Zuko's eyes. 

“I can’t think of anyone else who knew enough about me and Sokka and Aang’s controller who had a connection to Zhou,” Zuko said after a second.

“Have you tried the constants?” Mai suggested, “Like the bouncer or the bartender?”

Zuko’s eyebrows rose, “I hadn’t thought of them,” he looked through the projection to Sokka, “When we get the all clear we’ll swing by Astoria.”

Sokka nodded. This would be his chance to win over the bartender, he knew it. Or they'd have to kill the bartender for ratting them out. Either way, no more shitty drinks. 

“Is there anything I can do on my end?” Mai asked in her deceptive neutrality. 

Zuko paused for a moment, considering. 

“Don’t tell Ty or Azula about this. If you feel up for it, ask leading questions about Zhou or me or Sokka. If the bar is a dead end, they're the next one's I'd think of.”

“Sure,” said Mai. She disconnected the call. 

Almost immediately after, Zuko’s pager beeped. He lifted the small screen to read the message. Aang and Sokka leaned forwards expectantly. 

“It’s from Ozai,” Zuko said, “The site is cleared and the security cams around the tomb are wiped. I think we should stay in for another day in case something surfaces. Sometimes his fixers move fast to keep their jobs, but sometimes they aren't thorough.”

“So we’ll swing by Astoria tomorrow?” asked Sokka.

Zuko nodded, “Tomorrow. So we’ve got all day to prep and come up with anyone else who knows you, me, Aang, and Zhou.”

“Katara’s not going to like this,” said Aang. 

Sokka crossed his arms, “Well Katara only chased after the hover van for a block so she doesn’t get a say.”

Aang shrugged. Momo and APPA floated into the room. The squirrel scampered across the glass dining table towards Aang. Zuko’s face became distinctly pained at the sound of the claws clicking against the glass. For Zuko’s sake, Sokka hoped it didn’t scratch easily. 

“Alright,” Sokka said, standing up from the table, “Zuko have you showered since yesterday?”

Zuko shook his head, “No… I did the other day, though. My hair’s not greasy. I checked.”

Sokka frowned, “Maybe not, but you smell like smoke and King Bumi dust,” he turned to Aang, “We’re gonna have a shower. You alright on your own for a bit?”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Zuko startle and turn a bit grey at the plural ‘we’. Sokka didn’t think he had any reason to be uncomfortable. Aang wasn’t blind, although Toph had found out way before Aang, so maybe it was more accurate to say Aang wasn’t stupid. He’d asked Sokka point blank why he’d gone to the Astoria kitchen with Zuko and he’d told Aang the answer point blank. Aang had shrugged and said ‘I don’t get it, but have fun’, and that was the end of it. 

They were gonna be in the penthouse for a little while still, there was no point in sneaking around. It was a big apartment, but not _that_ big. He’d check with Zuko before saying anything like that around his friends, but it was kind of fun to fluster him once in a while. 

“Yup,” Aang chirped, “I’ve gotta do some work on Momo’s comms program. It just needs a few more tweaks!”

Sokka turned to Zuko, holding his hands out towards Aang as if to say ‘see, he’s unbothered’. Zuko regarded him warily like he was going to start spilling real secrets. As if Sokka had any secrets. He slung an arm around Zuko’s shoulders and started purposefully walking them towards the main washroom… Washrooms... ? Wash facility?

“You can tell me to get lost if you want, I don’t mind,” he said when they were out of Aang’s earshot, “But you will be getting some surfactants on you one way or another.”

He looked over, amused to see Zuko’s cheeks turning a bit red. Out of all the things to get flustered over, Sokka would have put a shower a bit further down the list. 

“No,” Zuko said, “I don’t mind.”

“You don’t mind or you want me to come with you?” 

Zuko glared at him and shoved Sokka gently, “God, fine, I want you to come. Why are you always so annoying?”

“And there you go again saying the sweetest things. Be careful, I think you're starting to seduce me.”

Zuko lightly shoved him again as they reached the washroom doors. Zuko opened the door. They looked at each other for a second. 

And suddenly they were racing. 

Sokka flung off his shirt with a bit too much force and it landed somewhere by the sink. Zuko’s socks went flying in a similar fashion. Sokka tried to trip Zuko as he got in first, but ended up stumbling sideways into the closed door in the process. 

Zuko won, but only because Sokka wasn’t used to the way the pants he was wearing unbuttoned. It was alright though, Zuko was a gracious winner. 

Sokka was still on the mend and couldn’t be repeating what they’d done in the Astoria bathroom any time soon with the dubious state of his shoulder. He could do the injury risking tomorrow. They had all of today. Sokka didn't know if they would ever have a day together like this again. He didn't want to waste it fighting or scheming. He wanted to make the memory of something good. He didn't know if they would have something good like this again.

Sokka assumed Zuko wasn’t worried about the warm water running out. He would have been if they were back at the compound, but they were far from that. They had time. He was beginning to get used to paying attention, lingering a bit around the good parts. For the next forty five minutes, there were lots of good parts. 

They emerged overall cleaner. Sokka accidentally put on Zuko’s shirt but he didn’t say anything. Sokka watched him go about his routine, brushing his teeth and combing out his hair. It felt almost like Zuko was two people. He was the guy in the blue hood raining down fire, he was the guy burning down Astoria, he was the guy putting a blaster to Jet’s head for a small insult. He was also the guy who had turtleduck print pyjamas in his dresser, the guy who knew when to be gentle, the guy who was carefully combing through his hair in the mirror. Sokka caught his eye in the reflection and Zuko smiled a bit. Sokka’s heart surged and ebbed in his chest. He smiled back. 

When they had dried off a bit, they walked back towards the dining room. Aang had barely moved from his spot at the table. His fingers fiddled with tiny parts on Momo’s back circuitry and tiny codes on his controller. 

“Any luck?” Zuko asked, swiping his tea from the table to down the final sips. Sokka leaned against the wall beside him.

“I’d say so,” a disjointed high voice emanated from Aang’s wrist controller. The squirrel’s pinched face hadn’t moved, but its eyes were focused on Zuko like it was talking to him.

Zuko dropped his tea cup.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit shorter and a bit sweeter, but don't worry, we'll get right back to our regularly scheduled violence and chaos.


	10. End of an Era

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko and Sokka go for one more drink at Astoria.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyway here's wonderwall.
> 
> TW: graphic violence and death

Zuko checked the settings on his blasters about thirty times on the way to Astoria. He wanted to make sure they were on low. He had a not-so-irrational fear of accidentally putting a hole through someone’s chest. He checked his blasters again. Low. Good. 

Astoria wasn’t open until later in the afternoon so they had spent most of the morning on the couch in Iroh’s living room. Nothing came up on the webwork about the destruction of King Bumi’s tomb other than a renovation notice of the site, but Zuko wasn’t convinced that it was over. Sokka had seemed to sense Zuko’s mood settle into apprehension. He hadn’t pushed Zuko for anything, just lay his head in Zuko’s lab while Zuko scanned the webwork for any mention of them. Even in his fugue state of worry and dread, Zuko had let Sokka fiddle with his free hand while Sokka played VR racing games with Aang. The squirrel had a lot to say about Sokka’s skycruiser driving style. 

The rain started just as they stopped in front of Astoria. No need to walk the block today. Zuko felt a bit off kilter without Azula’s attitude and Mai’s indifference to shield him. Now he was just Zuko. Maybe not just Zuko. Zuko with new friends. Aang deposited Momo in the basket on his drone before scurrying from the car to the hotel entrance. 

“You coming hotman?” asked Sokka, sliding across the back seat. Sokka looked good in Zuko’s deep plum sweater, it fit him better than it ever fit Zuko. Sokka spoke easily, but his eyes searched Zuko’s face carefully. 

“Yeah,” Zuko touched his door handle, letting the door hiss open, “Just bracing myself, I guess.”

“If you run you won’t get wet,” offered Sokka. 

That wasn’t what Zuko was bracing for. Something about this whole situation felt a bit off, but he didn't know how to put it into words. They ran to the entrance together and Sokka shook out his hair in the front hall. The bouncer wasn’t there yet, they’d probably come out with the night. For now, Astoria was just a hotel bar. 

“Is this like official business, or should I order something?” Sokka mused as they went down to the bar. 

“Maybe wait to harass the poor man for alcohol until after we get our answers.”

“Copy that.”

Aang was already in Astoria, sending the drone up to the safety of the ceiling. The squirrel had the wherewithal to go quiet. The neon lights from behind the bar slipped red and blue off the sides of the drone as it rose. 

Music played softly, making the dinge and dark seem more nostalgic than ominous. Sokka went right up to the bar and took an empty stool. Zuko did the same. The bartender was nowhere to be seen.

“You think he’s in the back room?” Sokka asked, drumming a little rhythm on the bar top. Aang wandered over to the dart board. Zuko didn’t blame him, he had been dragged along with them for two days. He probably needed a break.

“Could be.”

Zuko used the excuse of pulling out his pager to look around the room at the other patrons. 

There were two burly women huddled over one of the remaining holo tables in the back. The table was off and their heads were leaned together in conversation. There were two slimmer people in shiny polyene utility jackets at one of the tables near the dance floor. Their faces were turned away, but their bodies were turned towards the bar. Neither of them had drinks. A broad man at the end of the bar sat staring at the counter. He had no drink either. His hands hung loosely at his sides.

“Sokka, I don’t feel good about-”

“Zuzu,” a familiar voice drawled, “glad to see you’re alright.”

The first thing he noticed about Azula was that she was alone. He was as used to Mai and Ty Lee flanking her sides as he was to feeling their presence. It made the curious tilt of her head seem exaggerated. The second thing he noticed about Azula was that she was wearing pants. She never went to the bar in pants. She never went to the bar at four in the afternoon.

She sank down on the stool beside Sokka, forcing Zuko to lean forward to see her. 

“Yeah, I had a bit of a close call. Did you know Zhou wanted to be your advisor so badly?” Zuko asked, trying to seem casual. By Sokka’s glance, he wasn’t succeeding.

Azula tossed her hair, “He’s always had ambition, didn’t think it would make him stupid though,” she turned to Sokka, a sharpness in her eyes, “It’s Sokka right?”

Sokka straightened up like he didn’t expect her to acknowledge him, “Uh, yeah?”

Azula’s keen eyes flicked from Sokka’s blistered neck to Zuko, then back to Sokka’s face, “That sweater looks better on you, it never fit Zuzu properly in the shoulders.”

Sokka shrugged, “I wouldn’t know. It’s comfy as fuck though. Does money really buy happiness?”

Azula’s teeth glimmered in the red and blue light.

Zuko’s pager beeped and he turned away from what was likely to be a stressful conversation, at least for him, to check the message. It was short, typical of Mai. 

**It’s Azula**

Zuko covered his pager with his hand quickly. His heart pounded in his chest, filling his ears with rushing blood. 

“Something wrong Zuzu? Sokka was just telling me about your busy night on Wednesday. That must have been so scary,” her voice turned cloying, a smirk dancing on her painted red mouth. 

He couldn’t figure out why she’d done it. He felt completely blindsided. She had been the closest thing he'd had to an ally for so long. She was his family. Why did she want to hurt him like this?

Zuko breathed, trying to get himself under control. No need to show his hand until she showed hers. 

“I guess you can never know who to trust,” he said, sliding his pager back into his pocket.

“But you’d think that you can trust family,” Azula replied firmly, “You’d think that one would put them first.”

Sokka’s head whipped between them, look of confusion twisting his eyebrows down, “Wait, is Zhou your uncle or something?”

Zuko ignored the question, “A person could do both. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.”

For a second, Azula’s smile turned a bit sad. Only for a second. 

“Oh, but it does.”

Zuko saw the strike coming a second before it connected. He shoved Sokka to the ground as Azula's whip crackled in the space where his neck had been. Zuko took the tail of the strike to his arm and hissed as it connected. It was a bit ironic to think that he’d gotten used to the bite of her bolt whips enough to let the current travel through his body and keep moving. 

He stood with his blasters drawn in between Azula and Sokka, who got to his feet with a look of surprise. He dusted off his pants and drew his ion boomerang. Thankfully, he didn’t move out from behind Zuko. Aang had turned to face them and left his drone hidden up in the shadows of the ceiling. They were all getting a bit more careful. Azula brought out that side in people. 

“You don’t have to do this Azula,” Zuko pleaded. “You can have whatever you want, we don’t have to fight.”

Azula laughed, it seemed to echo in the room. The old songs still played quietly in the background. 

“You still don’t GET IT! You have a weakness,” she gestured to Sokka with the handle of her bolt whip. “You know how hard we work not to show those. You KNOW how many years we worked to get rid of them. And here you are, just picking up a new one off the street! You’re not even pretending not to care.”

“You’re the one who sold me out, Azula.”

“Father and I were testing you. And you failed,” spat Azula. 

Zuko’s blood ran cold. Ozai was in on it too? Ozai had made him a killer for some stupid loyalty test? As horrible as it was, his first thoughts went to what punishment he’d get for all this. He shook himself out of it. They had to survive Azula before Ozai got anywhere near them. 

“I protected you!” Zuko insisted, a slight tremor creeping back into his hands holding his blasters, “What was I supposed to do? He was going to blackmail me, is that not a bigger problem than me loving someone.”

He heard Sokka suck in a breath behind him, but he couldn’t afford to take his eyes off Azula. It wasn’t a lie and he didn’t feel ashamed. It was just a little new and a little raw. 

“You were supposed to let them die,” said Azula, “and if they didn’t, you were supposed to take care of them once they became a hazard.”

“That’s insane! I would have let Zhou be an advisor if that’s what he wanted. I would have let you do whatever you wanted if I had to take up the position.”

“It’s not insane, Zuko,” Azula said sharply, “It’s power. You clearly can’t be trusted with any so we’re taking you home.”

“What?” said Sokka.

“What?” echoed Zuko. “Who’s we?”

Azula lifted her free hand and snapped her fingers. 

The women at the holo tables drew ray guns. The couple at the low table drew laser machetes. The man at the end of the bar simply stood and cracked his knuckles. A red glowing ray source was mounted to his forehead like a headlamp. 

“Don’t make this harder than it has to be,” Azula said calmly, uncoiling her other bolt whip, “Or do. I need some exercise.”

Zuko grit his teeth and steadied the shake in his hands.

“If we get out of this,” Sokka murmured in his ear, “I’m never coming to your family dinners.”

“Fair enough,” muttered Zuko. 

Azula struck first. 

Zuko feinted right and responded with a set of thermal blasts which she flicked out of the air with her bolt whips. Sokka made another good call, going to defend Aang from the hired help while Aang’s fingers danced over his wrist controller. 

Azula’s whip cracked through the air beside Zuko's head. 

“Don’t get distracted now. It’s you and me, Zuzu. I’m sure your plaything will keep busy,” she taunted. 

Zuko ignored the jibe, “Should we place stakes?”

Azula shrugged, “It doesn’t matter to me. You’re not going to win.”

Zuko checked that his blasters were on low. They were. 

“How about if you win, I’ll go with you and hear out father, and if I win, you let us go. Aang too.”

“Deal. If you win, I’ll even let you take my car,” Azula said cockily. “It just got back from the shop, I’ve barely tried all the mods.”

“Was someone actually dumb enough to take off the autopilot?”

Azula frowned. Then lashed her whip towards his face. Zuko ducked, but just barely missed acquiring a matching scar. 

The sounds of laser machete’s cracking over Sokka’s boomerang filled the room. At a quick glance, Zuko saw that Sokka had managed to knock over a table to use as a shield while he struggled to fend off the two people in the polyene jackets. Aang had taken down one of the burley women with the ray guns. But now the other woman with the ray gun was shooting at the drone and Aang was too preoccupied with trying to maneuver the drone to shoot back. 

Zuko dodged a hit from Azula, but it opened space for her to get close enough to place a kick to his knees. He twisted and took it on the thighs, gritting his teeth through the pain. He didn’t know how he was going to help Sokka and Aang without taking his focus off Azula. 

Then, conveniently, the back wall blew out.

Shrapnel flew. Zuko ducked reflexively. Azula barely flinched, taking the opportunity to land a kick to his ribcage. He rolled out of the way of her whip as it came down. It made a scorch mark on the floor. 

Zuko pressed up to his feet, breathing hard, but not breathless. Plaster dust filled the room, swirling around the figure beyond. The dust made Zuko want to cough and turned the bar hazy yellow from the neon lights. The shadow loomed then shrunk as they stepped in. 

It was Toph’s exoskeleton, flanked by Katara and Suki. Zuko breathed a sigh of relief. If nothing else, Sokka would get out okay. 

Azula’s whip cracked across his wrist and he was forced to drop one of his blasters. Right. He still had work to do. He faced Azula. He could do this, it was just like another day in the training room. Sometimes he won. Not usually, but if he could catch her off guard...

He shot a volley of fire balls which she had to swing her whip to knock away. The thermal blast flew into the shelves behind the bar, igniting the wall. Almost immediately, fire extinguisher foam sprayed from a hidden source up in the ceiling above the bar. The upgraded building likely had more fire precautions after he burned it down the first time. Azula nearly slipped as the foam rained down. 

A green flash lit up the room and another huge crash followed. 

Zuko discovered why Toph didn’t really use the blasters on the exoskeleton inside that often. Every shot that went wide of one of Azula’s goons demolished another section of the wall. He could see the rainy street through the back wall and a bit of the alley from the missing wall near the washrooms too. 

He caught another strike from the bolt whip on his arm and clench his jaw as the volts passed through his bones. Azula grinned, but she was huffing and puffing too. 

Maybe she beat him most of the time, maybe she might be a bit faster and a bit smarter, but he had something to fight for, something more than empty promises from Ozai. He could stick it out until she got tired or she killed him. 

Maybe those were the only options. 

Zuko narrowed his eyes, raised his blaster, and fired. 

*********

Sokka was not having fun. 

Laser machetes were so much cooler when they weren’t carving through the last overturned bar table that separated him and Aang from decapitation. 

“How’s it coming Aang?” he shouted frantically.

“I’m trying,” Aang said, eyes fixed in concentration over his controller, “APPA just can’t get clear.”

The drone in question weaved wildly through shots from ray guns. Momo clutched the sides of the basket with their claws. 

“Momo!” shouted the squirrel’s tinny voice with every wild swerve of the drone.

The guy with the ray source mounted on his head started walking towards them. Sokka saw the red light get brighter. Something told him a blast from that thing would not tickle. 

And then Toph blasted the third eye guy through the side of the building. The noise of metal snapping and concrete crumbling made Sokka’s ears ring. He was so happy to see her. 

Suki used the commotion to tackle the woman with the ray gun to the ground. Katara shot plasma orbs around the hands of the laser machete wielders until they toppled over from the weight. They went down with a thump. The disruption of ray firing allowed Aang to steer APPA around for enough time to lock onto a target and fire a kindness dart. The woman trying to knock off Suki went limp. 

Sokka peered over the edge of his table-shield. The laser eye guy was in a heap of rubble barely visible out in the alley. The two machete people were struggling against the plasma orbs around their arms and legs. APPA delivered two more kindness darts. Suki dusted off her hands as she stood over the burly woman groaning softly on the ground. 

The only other sound was the scuffle of Zuko and Azula’s feet over the ground near the bar. Zuko had her in a chokehold, but she quickly twisted away and shoved him back. Zuko had a nasty looking burn over the side of his collar and his wrist. Azula had a burn on her other wrist and a single mark on the side of her shirt. 

Sokka stood up, helping Aang up too, “Well that wasn’t so bad,” Katara scoffed at his cheerful tone, “Let’s help out Zuko and get out of here before the Pol-bots come.”

As soon as he said it, a low moaning noise filled the air. At first, Sokka thought the music had turned on again. Then, he saw the pillars around the room start to buckle. The blown out walls must have compromised the structure of the building. Sokka could imagine how heavy the upper floors were getting for the remaining pillars and single intact wall. 

Suki quickly reached the same conclusion, “SHIT! It’s gonna fall, we gotta go, NOW!”

“We can’t leave them here!” said Katara, gesturing to the incapacitated people on the floor. 

Toph threw her hands up, “Are you cra-”

“No time to argue,” Suki said curtly, “You get the big one by the holo table and the one in the alley. Sokka, help me with this one,” she gestured to the woman at her feet, “Aang, Katara, and APPA can get the last two.”

Sokka cast a glance back towards the destroyed bar. Zuko and Azula were apart again, exchanging orange and white crackling blows. In that moment, Zuko seemed firelit from some inner source. His hands glowed orange from the blasters, the burns across his face and arms seared stark red, and the firelight of the burning alcohol flickered in his golden eyes. He looked more inferno than human.

A trickle of water from a burst pipe above dripped onto Sokka’s face and he snapped into action. He scrambled over to Suki and helped her hoist the gun-toting woman to her feet and begin dragging her towards the street through the gaping hole in the wall. Water started pouring down from the upper floors, rushing loud in Sokka’s ears. 

He turned back just before they climbed through the opening. 

“ZUKO!” he yelled, cupping one hand beside his mouth, “LET’S GO.”

He could barely see Zuko through the water and crumbling concrete. A rebar pillar snapped and the ceiling sagged. 

“Sokka, we have to go,” said Suki, “He’ll be fine, they can still run out, but we have to get her further away.”

Sokka hesitated, torn. Suki started walking and he was forced to move his feet to avoid tripping on chunks of cement. They dragged the woman out of the building and across the street. People gathered on the street at a distance, watching the water pour out of the cavities in the building. No guests fled from the building. Sokka confirmed his suspicions that no one actually stayed at the Astoria Hotel. 

The neon lights from the other clubs on the street illuminated strips of blue and red and yellow and green across the wet pavement. The clouded sky felt low and dark, like it too could fall at any moment. 

Toph landed beside them, dumping the big guy and the woman next to the other goon a little ways away. From the building emerged Aang, APPA, and the two people in poleyne jackets. APPA carried the weight of one of them with an extended pincer. Aang struggled to drag the other one. 

“Where’s Katara?” Sokka asked, panic straining his voice, “Where’s Zuko?”

Toph faced the building, quiet for a moment, “I can see three heat signatures on the bottom level.”

Sokka took two steps at a run before a metal hand clamped down on his shoulder with a vice grip. Sokka strained against the grip. Suki wrapped her arms around his torso. The rain forged trails over his face, cold seeping through his clothes. 

“You can’t go in there Sokka,” Suki said quickly in his ear, “You won’t come out, and how is that helping anyone?”

Sokka pulled and pulled, “Let me go! I can save them! Let go!” he screamed. Neither Toph nor Suki budged an inch. 

“Don’t be dumb, snoozles,” said Toph through her suit speakers, “I can see them moving. Sit tight.”

Aang finally reached them, dropping the plasma clad person with the others and instructing APPA to do the same. Even Momo looked harrowed, white fur standing on end and red eyes twitching.

“WHERE’S KATARA!?” Sokka yelled. She should be out here. She was always the cautious one, she was always the careful one. What the hell was she doing?

Aang jumped from Sokka’s shout, “She said she-”

The Astoria Hotel collapsed. 

The first floor slumped into the ground floor with a terrible whump. The feeling of it crushed the wind from Sokka’s lungs as the rest of the building fell in on itself, all seven floors. A blast of air, then a blast of dust battered Sokka’s face. He threw an arm over his eyes. He couldn’t tell if his face was wet from tears or rain. 

A strange silence fell. 

The patter of the rain seemed to dull the little things like Suki’s choked gasps and the exclaiming of the other people on the street. 

It was just white noise. 

It was all white noise. 

Sokka felt his chest shake and heave. Maybe he was sobbing. Maybe he was screaming. He didn’t care if he was. 

The rain settled the dust quickly. 

The first thing Sokka saw was the unnaturally exposed cement walls of the neighbouring buildings. There was a gaping absence, a missing tooth from the block. 

The second thing Sokka saw was his sister running full tilt towards him. 

He blinked. It felt too soon to be hallucinating her ghost. 

But then she was crushing him in a hug, pulling Suki down too. 

“Katara!” cheered Aang, joining in on their pile. 

“Alive!” cheered Momo.

Toph disengaged her exoskeleton and piled on top. Sokka couldn't catch his breath. 

“What the fuck Katara?” he said wetly, “I thought that was it.”

Katara half laughed, half sobbed, “I’d never leave you numbskull out here on your own.”

Sokka half laughed, half sobbed, and pulled her close, reassuring himself that she was there. 

He hadn’t just lost everything.

Only one thing. 

“Did you see… if…” he couldn’t bring himself to say the words. Then it would be real. Then he couldn’t pretend he would turn around and see Zuko holstering his blasters trying to look indifferent and failing. Then he couldn’t pretend that he’d wake up tomorrow next to Zuko too early and too warm in the morning. 

Then he had to acknowledge that Zuko’s bad luck had taken him away for the last time. 

“Aang,” said Katara softly, “Can you pull up vital signs on APPA?”

“Huh?” said Sokka. If Zuko made it out, surely he’d be further away from the building. 

Aang scampered to his feet, fingers already on his controller, “I think so…”

“A building just fell on them,” said Toph bluntly, “How vital do you expect them to be?”

“Just do it,” Katara insisted. Momo took the opportunity to leap onto Aang’s shoulder and chitter in his ear.

They watched APPA zoom over the rubble of the hotel. A white beam shone down over the wreckage. Suki rubbed a hand over Sokka’s back and Katara held onto his arm, fixing his hair. He couldn’t let himself hope, that was cruel, even to himself. 

Aang’s face twisted in concentration. 

“Hmm… I’m picking up…. two…? Two pulses!” 

“You sure?” Toph said skeptically. 

“Yeah!” Aang exclaimed, “It might not be them, but there’s people still alive under there.”

“What are you waiting for?!” shouted Suki, “Suit up Toph!” 

“It’s always ‘suit up Toph, take him out Toph’, never ‘take a break Toph, you’ve done a lot today Toph’,” Toph grumbled, but she engaged her exoskeleton and took off at a jog anyway.

“Should we,” Sokka sniffled, “follow her?”

He felt more than saw the look that Katara and Suki exchanged over his head.

“Let’s… just see what she finds,” Katara said carefully. 

Sokka could read between the lines. They weren’t entirely wrong, seeing Zuko’s broken lifeless body would probably traumatize him in a way no amount of put-on happiness could hide. Still, he morbidly just wanted to know either way. This in-between was eroding his sanity. 

Aang brought APPA low by his feet and hopped into Momo’s basket. Aang, Momo, and APPA flew back above where Toph started hauling blocks of concrete aside. Sokka could distantly hear Aang calling directions to Toph. She chucked a massive black rebar section onto the street and it clattered against the pavement, gouging potholes where it landed. 

Sokka hadn’t realized how long he and Suki and Katara had sat there silently watching until the bot carrier arrived. A few Pol-bots and Cryo-bots dispatched, but most of the uncanny humanoid robots had blue heads, delineating them as Med-bots. They began scanning the rubble and fanning out over the area to inspect the people who’d gathered to watch the destruction. 

“Should we move them?” Suki asked, turning to look at the cluster of people lying just a bit behind them. Aang had delivered another dose of kindness darts. They were out cold. 

“Nah,” said Sokka weakly, “Let the Pol-bots pick ‘em up. What would we do with them?”

Suki shrugged, “Fair point.”

Toph’s cry of victory could be heard all the way down the block. Sokka scrambled to his feet, craning his neck. Did she find Zuko? Was he alive? Did he go in the fridge? Sokka would have gone in the fridge. 

A moment later, Toph descended from the blue-black sky holding what looked like a massive blue dome over her head. She set it down in front of them and Aang hopped off APPA beside her. 

Sokka’s brain had a hard time processing what he was looking at. 

It was a blue transparent dome, frozen through. It looked like Katara’s plasma. Inside the dome there were two figures. One had his back to the sky, curled protectively around the other who was barely visible below.

Even in what he thought were his last moments, Zuko had tried to shield Azula. 

“Katara, did you do this?” breathed Suki.

Katara nodded solemnly, “They wouldn’t stop fighting to run so I thought I could give them a bit of a buffer. I wasn’t sure if it would work.”

Sokka leaned over the dome and knocked his knuckles against the cold plasma. Nothing moved, it was completely solid. Zuko’s eyes were shut tight, no air bubbles surrounded his head. 

“Can we break them out? They’re gonna suffocate,” he said, spinning to face Katara. 

She shook her head, “I put my gun on the coldest setting, they’re pretty much cryopreserved right now. We have to melt them out or they’ll go into shock.”

One of the Med-bots started walking towards them. Suki purposefully walked over to distract it, complaining about a sore shoulder. It probably helped that she was covered in dust and smeared with blood from the burly woman. 

“How do we-”

Sokka saw how they could do it. Just behind Zuko in the dome lay his thermal blaster. 

“Toph can you break through to the blaster? I have an idea.”

Toph shrugged, then without warning punched into the side of the plasma dome. It chipped, but didn’t shatter. Toph hit it again and again until she could wrench the blaster from the frozen plasma. Blue chips littered the ground around them. 

Sokka took the blaster and fiddled with the dials. Low should do it, enough to melt, but not enough to burn through the whole dome. He set to firing. 

It was frustratingly slow work firing shot after shot to melt the plasma bit by bit. He could tell they were garnering the interest of a few of the people taking videos on the scene. Reporter drones swarmed over the rubble of the building, but a few started drifting towards them. Aang sent up APPA to nudge them to the other side of the scene. The Med-bot near Suki moved on to the next cluster of people, apparently uninterested in the unconscious pile of people lying just beyond them. 

Sokka melted to Zuko’s back first. His black cargo jacket was in slices from Azula’s whip. Sokka crouched closer, aiming more carefully. He didn’t want to accidentally get Zuko with the thermal blasts. He uncovered Zuko’s neck, then legs, then arms. 

Finally he melted the last of the plasma away from Zuko’s face. Zuko took a gasping breath. 

Sokka flung the thermal blaster to Suki and dragged Zuko out of the cold plasma. Sokka’s hands were numb from prying apart the cold plasma. 

He lay Zuko down on the pavement, tilting him sideways in case he needed to cough up anything. Sokka didn’t know what the protocol was, he’d never unfrozen anyone before. 

Katara came over and crouched beside him, checking Zuko’s pulse and breathing. 

“Is he gonna be okay?” Sokka asked quietly. 

“I don’t know,” said Katara.

When her hand pressed into Zuko’s neck to check his pulse there his eyes flew open and his hand wrapped around her wrist. In an instant, he threw her to the side, lunging over and pressing his knee down on her neck. Katara’s hands tugged at his leg. 

Sokka scrambled to get there before Toph did, she wouldn’t be gentle. He tackled Zuko to the ground. They rolled once, twice. Zuko twisted so he wound up straddling Sokka’s waist, fist pulled back. 

“Hey now!” Sokka exclaimed, raising his hands in surrender, “Take it easy, man.”

Zuko’s eyes searched Sokka’s face in confusion. Then his eyebrows rose and his eyes went wide. He rushed to get off Sokka and Sokka sat up as he moved.

“I’m- I’m sorry,” Zuko said, shaking his head hard. He brought his knees into his chest, looking down at his hands. Sokka noticed there was a slight tremor in his fingers.

“Hey, it’s cool. You’ve probably got a bit of plasma in your brain. Just breathe for a bit.”

Zuko looked around, taking in the scene. There was the crumbled building, the street and sky crawling with bots, his sister still being melted out of the plasma by Suki.

Zuko sucked in a sharp breath. A tremble ran through his shoulders. He must have been cold. Sokka scooted over and wrapped his arms around Zuko, tucking his chin onto Zuko’s shoulder, much the same Suki and Katara had done to him.

Another shudder ran through Zuko’s body, “I thought I died,” he murmured.

“Yeah, me too,” Sokka murmured back. 

Zuko shifted to look at him. They were nose to nose. 

“I’m sorry. I just couldn’t leave Azula in there but she wouldn’t stop coming at me.”

Sokka ruffled Zuko’s wet hair gently, “Just don’t die again or we’re going to start having relationship problems.”

“Relationsh-”

“Uh, guys?” Aang said apprehensively, “The Pol-bots are coming.”

Sokka looked where he was pointing. True to form, a squadron of Pol-bots were making their way over. He was pretty sure they couldn’t take them out and make it out of there without making a major scene. They probably should leave it at destroying a high rise. 

“Let’s get out of here,” Suki said, standing from where she crouched over Azula’s mostly freed form, “She’s breathing, just her legs are stuck, but the rain will melt her out.”

“We probably shouldn’t take the train,” Katara mused. 

“Yeah, no shit,” Sokka said helpfully. He’d come to Astoria in Zuko’s car which was currently buried under two tons of concrete. The Pol-bots lurched closer. How far would they get on foot?

“I have an idea,” said Zuko. His eyes were trained on his unconscious sister.

“Do you now?” Sokka said incredulously. This was new. He helped Zuko to his feet. Zuko wobbled wildly once, until Sokka ducked under his arm and held him up by the waist. Zuko winced, but didn’t complain. 

“We can take Azula’s car. I have print-access to all of her cars in case she wants me to take them somewhere. She said she just got her basilisk jailbroken from the autopilot.”

“That’s perfect!” Aang chimed in. 

“Speed,” Momo added sagely.

“How fast does it go?” asked Sokka. The possibilities of a jailbroken hover-car were nearly endless.

Zuko smiled faintly, looking down the block towards what appeared to be a sleek miniature war machine, “Faster than a mag-train.”

Sokka grinned back, “Let’s roll.”

As it turned out, Azula’s car only had four seats so Toph and Aang had to share the limited space at Suki and Katara’s feet. Zuko and Sokka got in the front. 

APPA’s white scanning beam swept the dash of the car, pausing in one spot under Zuko’s console. Aang maneuvered his way across the centre arm rest. APPA produced a miniature laser knife which Aang used to carve into the console cover. 

"I love crime," said Momo.

Aang's hand disappeared into the network and circuitry. After a moment, his hand emerged holding a small black square with loose copper wires dangling in the air.

“Here it is, it’s a GPS3-80. These are really cool, they use radar and satellites to-”

“Neat,” Sokka grabbed it from Aang’s hand and threw it out the window. 

Aang blinked at his empty hand. Sokka shooed him and his squirrel back into the rear seat area. 

Zuko rested his hand on the dash and the display lit up, recognizing his prints. A dual stick steering system emerged from beneath the console. Sokka supposed a jailbroken car wouldn’t run on autopilot so well. The engine came online with the distinct high whine of a boosted nitro hover engine.

“Where to?” asked Zuko.

“Let’s regroup at the compound,” Sokka suggested, “You know the way?”

The corner of Zuko’s mouth lifted and he looked sideways at Sokka.

“Yeah, I do.”

“Can you drive already? I’m gonna need a fucking chiropractor after this,” ordered Toph from her squashed position at Suki’s feet. 

They took off down the block into a blur.

Sokka sat mostly quietly for the thirty minutes it took to reach the compound. He felt completely drained. From the near death experience two nights ago to the near death experience tonight, he felt like he needed to sleep for three business years. 

He glanced sideways at Zuko a few times. Zuko was intently focused on the empty pitch dark highway, as he should be at this speed. Sokka would have offered to drive, but he wouldn’t have had the first clue. Back home they had a few hover bikes and a snow-skimmer. Nothing like Azula’s deathtrap. 

Zuko seemed to be handling it well, all things considered. He took the corners smoothly and his face had this almost serene look on it, like Zuko’s brain was dialled into the road. It was like he hadn’t been frozen under a demolished building an hour ago. Sokka had to look out the window for a bit as he felt another wave of tears threaten to choke him. 

He had to find a way to never have to feel this way again. 

As they sped through the night, an idea formed in his head. He turned it over on its facets. It was rough around the edges and it needed a bit of logistical reworking to pull off. Still, there was somewhere they could run from every bad thing chasing Zuko. There was somewhere Ozai was losing control. He’d have to bring it up with his dad first, especially if Katara and Aang were going to have to come with them to be out of reach of Azula. Although, Sokka didn’t think his dad would be too hard to convince. He and Katara were only one more arrest from getting sent there anyway. 

They pulled up outside the compound. Zuko put out the landing gear with a bit of fiddling with the controls and lowered the car. The engine whooshed into silence. 

“Get me out,” Toph said. 

“Bossy, bossy,” Suki chided, opening the door and sliding out to help Toph up. 

Sokka unbuckled and climbed out, glad to let the cool clean air of home wash over his face. It had stopped raining somewhere along the way. He stretched out his neck while everyone piled out of the car and through the chainlink front gate.

“You coming?” Katara asked as she passed him. 

Sokka nodded, “Yeah, I’ll meet you guys in the living room in a few, okay?”

Katara touched his shoulder and rushed to catch up to Aang. 

Zuko crunched over the gravel, stopping beside Sokka. He looked up at the walls and Sokka looked at him. Sokka noticed thin red burns over Zuko’s collar.

He whistled, “She really didn’t hold back, huh?”

Zuko grimaced, “She never holds back.”

“You’re definitely right about that, hotman.”

Zuko turned to face him, a look of resignation set into his features. Sokka did not like to see that look on Zuko’s face. It looked almost like defeat. It just didn’t sit right.

“I guess this is it,” Zuko said quietly.

“The fuck it is,” Sokka said back, “What are you talking about now?”

“My father and Azula are going to hunt me down, Sokka. Azula has already tried to kill you and Aang twice. I can’t let that happen.”

“Yeah, me neither,” said Sokka, “I’m too pretty to die.” 

Zuko started to get frustrated, “Sokka, listen to me, I have to go before they come here. I’ll lead them away and you guys can try to hide. I can’t stay here.”

“You definitely can,” Sokka said, “I swear we already had this conversation. I’m with you, no matter what. This is a no matter what situation.”

He took Zuko’s hand in his carefully, aware of the lines of burns from the bolt whip. 

“I... I can’t let you get hurt again,” Zuko struggled to say, “Not because of me.”

Sokka had had enough of skirting around the heart of the issue, clearly it wasn’t working.

“Zuko, look at yourself. This isn’t a better option. Dying under a pile of concrete isn’t a better option. I love you too, you know? But I can’t feel like your boyfriend or partner in crime or whatever we’re doing if you go off on your own to sacrifice yourself for the millionth time. Please, just come inside and we’ll figure it out together,” Sokka pleaded. 

“You what?” Zuko breathed.

Sokka nodded obviously, “I’m fully in love with you and you’re going to hurt my feelings if you keep trying to ditch me.”

Zuko looked down at his boots and mumbled something Sokka couldn’t hear. 

“What was that?”

The tips of Zuko’s ears went a bit red. He kept staring down at his boots.

“Your dad’s gonna hate me.”

Sokka burst out laughing with his whole chest. 

Zuko looked at him angrily, “I’m serious, he’s not going to let me near you when he finds out who I am. If he cares about you he’s going to kick me out.”

Sokka laughed harder and tugged Zuko close enough so he could use his shoulder as support. The idea of his father seeing downtrodden beat up Zuko and telling him to go anywhere other than the first aid room was truly hilarious. 

“Now you’re grasping at straws, you know that, right?” Sokka said, wiping his eyes. Zuko stared at him, uncomprehending. Sokka pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. Having Zuko in his arms again after thinking he lost him all over again was making him kind of giddy. Sokka was pretty sure he would make any excuse to have Zuko this close all the time.

“It could happen,” Zuko continued, “And what about Katara? Have you thought about-”

“Okay, okay,” interrupted Sokka, “So we have some serious thinking to do tonight. We’ll get to every one of your hangups. There’s only really one thing you need to do before the security system will let you in.”

“What’s that?”

“Shut up and kiss me.”

Zuko rolled his eyes and did just that. 

*********

They ran through the streets like water. 

Their shouts soared like wind.

Their feet pounded over dark pavement like rolling stones. 

Their conviction burned like fire. 

They found a new city and with it, a thousand more fights to start. They sowed dissent and coaxed it into rebellion. 

One had fire in his hands and had the strength to not let it wield him. One found his family in something bigger than himself. One saw the southern stars in his lover’s eyes. 

One found skill in secret meetings. One wove hope from threads of fear. One had one hand on a weapon and the other kept warm in his lover's.

They didn't need to belong to the night, they belonged to each other. 

Over the flash of a grin and the flash of a gun, the morning sky chased out the night in soft purple light.

. 

. 

. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *banging pots and pans*
> 
> I didn't mean to bury the gay but he's fine now!
> 
> They get to live happily ever after to terrorize a new city and Ozai and, especially, Momo. 
> 
> What a treat!

**Author's Note:**

> And that's all folks!
> 
> Please leave a comment if you enjoyed or were filled with unbridled rage! 
> 
> Feel free to check out my other Zukka works if you haven't yet, there's one for corporate espionage soulmates and one for sleep-deprived college kids. 
> 
> Have a very lovely 8:45pm - 5:20 am!
> 
> \- mylevelance


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